Singer Shaman (Yaroslav Dronov) was forced to write an explanatory letter to the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Tula region after a resident of the region applied to the prosecutor's office with a demand to check the artist for inciting ethnic hatred, which may be present in the song "I am Russian." The singer himself wrote about this in his Telegram channel.
The artist said that his new concert program is also called “I am Russian”, and called the complaint to the Ministry of Internal Affairs an “unexpected gift” for the premiere. According to a resident of the Tula region, the song played on the radio is extremist and incites ethnic hatred in the country. The criminal investigation department asked the singer to write an "explanatory note".
“My song“ I am Russian ”is known, loved and sung by representatives of completely different nationalities inhabiting our country. For each of them, speaking and thinking in Russian, the statement “I am Russian” means belonging to our common history, great culture and spiritual kinship with millions of other fellow citizens who consider Russia their homeland,” Shaman wrote.
The singer also decided to remind that this particular song was played on Channel One on New Year's Eve - immediately after the address of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The explanation was given by me with my own hand, I wrote this song and sing it, because I am Russian,” he concluded.
Another Shaman's song, Let's Get Up, has become a symbol of the war in Ukraine. He also performed it at the last concert at Luzhniki on February 22, 2023 before Putin's performance. Also, a video for the song "Let's Get Up" is distributed on the network, where it is performed by members of Putin's favorite group "Lube", singer Nadezhda Babkina and other stars.
Comedian Alexander Gudkov previously released a parody of Shaman's video "I'm Russian", calling it: "I'm narrow." After that, the chairman of the "Civil Committee of Russia" Artur Shlykov wrote a denunciation to the Prosecutor General's Office for "inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliating human dignity" (Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The singer himself supported the parody, noting that the main thing for him is that "there are no indifferent" to his song.