According to human rights organizations, carousel arrests have increased noticeably since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as several laws against criticizing the war have been enacted. The Russian band Stoptime started playing on the streets of St. Petersburg in the fall of 2025.
Street music is a tradition in St. Petersburg, and Stoptime did not think much about any risks when they started playing. The band was not aware of any previous arrests of street musicians.
Many people wanted to listen to Stoptime, and the group noticed attention both on the street and online, with people coming from other parts of the country to listen. Stoptime's repertoire included songs by Noize MC, an artist classified as a 'foreign agent', and a song categorized as 'extremist' and as propaganda for overthrowing the political system due to references to the August Coup of 1991. The police arrested Stoptime for the first time in mid-October.
Stoptime was accused of unlawfully organizing a public gathering and of 'discrediting the army' through the lyrics of Monetochka's song 'Ti soldat' ('You are a soldier'), and was sentenced to fines and 13 days in detention. Monetochka is also classified as a foreign agent. An additional 13 days of deprivation of liberty were imposed for 'hooliganism', also due to the language in the song lyrics.
Directly after the second turn in detention, the band's singer Diana Loginova and guitarist Aleksandr Orlov were arrested again. After the third turn in detention, they decided to leave the country. Loginova and Orlov, who got engaged in detention, now travel around Europe and play the songs they were prosecuted for in Russia.
On March 3, they will play in Stockholm. The exact charges and legal basis for the 'hooliganism' accusation against Stoptime have not been detailed by authorities.