In Russia Law Breaks You

Well, my question about retrospective application of legislation to the Rammstein show proves to be sound. Here is a news story from Russia about the St Petersburg regulations regarding promotion of homosexuality:

Wait...What?

I really need a Russian to check this out for me. It *seems* that it's about to become a crime to be gay in St Petersburg. It also seems that homosexuality is grouped with paedophilia (I feel dirty just typing that word), and that Rammstein are public offenders. According the article linked above homosexuality stopped being a mental illness there only 13 years ago, and stopped being a crime some six years prior to that. What I don't get is how this kind of fuckwittage can be allowed into positions of power. Did Russians really elect these officials? If so, WHY?

Okay, so Rammstein are good at causing offence. It's part of their charm. I'm not sure how a regulation like this can be applied retrospectively. A Russian lawyer would be really handy about now, to explain this to me.

Incoherent Copyright Infringement Story

Read this article:

Russian commies in Rammstein row
Source Andy Potts at 07/10/2010

Communists in Nizhny Novgorod face a potential copyright row after mimicking the art work and music of cult German rock band Rammstein in their campaign materials.

But while a court in the city considers whether their video ad has stolen from the band, others might question borrowing from a group once described as “poster boys for the master race” and accused of Nazi sympathies.

Nizhny communist chief Nikolai Ryabov defended himself against charges of plagiarism, saying that experts had yet to confirm that the music was even by Rammstein and not a cover version or a similar band, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

There is a serious lack of detail, such as the title, date, author, and publisher of the original (Pravda?) article, background on the (false) implications of Nazism in the band, or any useful information as to the stage this case has reached. We have no way to know when this case was brought, whether or not it has been dismissed, or if there will be further proceedings with regard to whether or not the song is a Rammstein track. This is the internet. There is no excuse for the omission of proper citations or missing source links.

Does anyone have a link to any real reporting about this story?

Update 2010.10.08: Eva has very kindly provided links to better stories in the comments for this item - thanks Eva :)

Hyper Doom

It turns out that Schneider's speedy stick-work also gives him mad autographing skills. At a Sabian signing session in Moscow he managed to autograph 750 posters in an hour and a half for the fans. Snappy!

Moscow Pictures - WOW

Neo-Rammstein has posted links to the most incredible photos from the 1 March show in Moscow. They're on a Livejournal account called freeraser:

One
Two

These are exceptionally good. Go and check them out.

Russian Pictures

One
Two
Three

I'm afraid I don't remember where I got those links, as they've been open in my browser for a couple of days.

Update: I've found where three came from - Herzeleid and the pictures are from Latvia, rather than Russia - D'OH! Thanks Tempelhüter.

Moskau & Moskau

I've got twp very different links about Rammstein in Moscow. The first (via GLT) has good photos, and is courtesy of Tempelhüter, from Herzeleid. The original Russian is here.

The second is an interesting observation on crowd conduct.

Moskau

It sounds like my boring interpretation of the story about Moscow's shows was the right one, and the show in general was unprecedented there. Ah well, the good news is that it sounds like Russia got the full Monty from the band, pyro-wise, despite recent events at a club there.