The leader of the “Zero” group Fyodor Chistyakov announced his emigration from Russia, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports with reference to Novaya Gazeta, to which the musician gave an interview.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
As it turned out, the reason for the emigration was Chistyakov’s membership in Jehovah’s Witnesses, which are recognized as an extremist organization in Russia and are banned.
The musician explained that he was not going to return from his American tour: he finally made this decision “on July 17, when the appeal was rejected (to the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses - Ed.).”
Chistyakov became a “witness” in the 90s: according to him, religion saved him from thoughts of leaving this life.
Now, as the musician says, he cannot openly profess his religion: “This is a trauma in itself, even if you are not imprisoned, but there are already imprisonments. In Oryol, for example, they arrested and imprisoned a Danish citizen. Russians are not enough for them, they decided to soak them in so much that their ears would ring.”
“Such a situation makes any creative activity meaningless,” the musician explained, assuring that only in emigration can he survive as a “creative unit.”
Let us note that in 2016 Chistyakov refused concerts in Crimea, explaining that he did not want to have “the slightest connection to this story.”