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Senator Gattarov urges to ban Bloodhound Gang entering Russia

The politician considers the actions of Bloodhound Gang's bass guitarist 'desecration of the symbol of the Russian statehood'
Photo ITAR-TASS/Alexander Ryumin
Photo ITAR-TASS/Alexander Ryumin

MOSCOW, August 5 (Itar-Tass) - Federation Council Committee for science, education, culture and information policy member Ruslan Gattarov asked the Federal Migration Service to consider a possible ban for members of the U.S. punk band Bloodhound Gang to arrive in Russia. The senator has made a request to FMS head Konstantin Romodanovsky on Monday.

The letter, the text of which Itar-Tass has at its disposal, noted that the actions of the bass guitarist of the punk band “can be taken as nothing but the desecration of the symbol of the Russian statehood.” “Numerous video and photo pieces of evidence give no reasons for different assessments of the event. The act of the musician was criticized sharply by the officials and ordinary people in Russia and Ukraine and was condemned in the United States,” Gattarov noted.

Gattarov recalled that this offence envisages under Article 329 of the Russian Criminal Code several kinds of verdicts, including a term of up to one year in prison. “I believe that such a blatant insult should not be left without punishment, because it is a matter of national pride,” the request reads.

In this respect, the senator asked the FMS head to consider a possible ban for the punk band Bloodhound Gang, featuring James Moyer Franks, Evil Jared Hasselhoff, Adam Perry, Daniel P Carter and Harry Dean to arrive in Russia.

A concert of the U.S. punk band Bloodhound Gang was scheduled in Russia for August 3 at the music festival Kubana-2013 in the Krasnodar territory, but it was cancelled. The reasons for this decision were insulting actions of bass guitarist Evil Jared Hasselholf with the Russian national flag at a concert of Bloodhound Gang in Odessa several days ago.