Prisoners in Russia are forced to listen to Western musicians

According to Grigory Melkonyants, a political prisoner in a prison in Moscow, the capital of Russia, the prisoners’ days begin with the performance of the Russian national anthem. This is common procedure in many prisons, but what follows is a variety of music that Russian President Vladimir Putin calls “malicious Western influences.”

Bon Jovi, AC/DC and Moby dominate the music played to the prisoners through speakers. Most of the songs on the 13-song playlist are in English and two of them are by Soviet rock band Gorky Park.

Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election watchdog Golos, was arrested in August and accused of working with banned international organisations. Melkonyants, who faces up to six years in prison, sent a list of the music he was forced to listen to every day to his colleagues, who created a Spotify playlist to highlight the listening experiences of Russian prisoners.

“This playlist is on repeat every day, every month,” Melkonyants said. Every morning, thousands of Russians, including political prisoners, await trial. “We put these songs together so you can understand how they feel.” saying.

One of the songs that plays is “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi. It is unclear whether prison guards knew that many Ukrainians had adopted the song as a soundtrack to the fight against the Russian occupation. A video of people building fortifications on an Odessa beach while playing the song through speakers went viral last year.

AC/DC were among several Western rock bands who played at a massive open-air music festival in Moscow in 1991, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union.