A Russian rock musician who condemned the invasion of Ukraine at a concert on Wednesday and questioned why so many Russians and Ukrainians had died was charged with discrediting the army.
Before a packed stadium in Ufa, Russia, Yuri Shevchuk, the frontman of the band DDT, said that people were dying as a result of “some kind of Napoleonic plans of our latest Caesar, yes?”
“The motherland, my friends, is not,” he said, a part of the president’s body “that you have to lick and kiss all the time.”
“The motherland is a poor grandmother selling potatoes at the train station,” he said, according to a translation by The Associated Press.
He received scattered applause.
Mr. Shevchuk, 65, who over the years has challenged President Vladimir V. Putin’s decisions, made the comments less than three months after Russia enacted a law that would punish anyone who spread “false information” about its invasion with up to 15 years in prison.
Radmir Usaev, a producer, said on Instagram that, after the concert, “security forces” spoke with Mr. Shevchuk for an hour and had him sign a “protocol” that was sent to a court.
