Punk against Putin: Criminal State – Путин
Raw Anti-Putin punk from Nizhny Novgorod / Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.
Almost all Russians love their country, but not all love their leader(s). Especially not that one. Criminal State (est. 2010) makes it clear. Lyrics below, with translation here. Explicit lyrics.
Путин (2014)
We want to live freely
so that no one hinders us
so that all scum dies the f*** out
the cop and politician suck it
punks don’t love Putin
they reject all the bulls***
governments can f*** off
all politicians to prison
Chorus: Putin, you’re a bastard
Putin the b**** lies a lot
Only talks, that’s it
Reads his speech from paper
Says there’s no war
Promises freedom for all
Independence in everything
But instead tightens passport control
We won’t obey
We don’t need a president
A state within a state
We’ve created our own
We have our own nationality
Punks united forever
And as long as the system lives
punk will never die
From Панк рок – это обязательно (2014).
Listen on
Spotify,
VK or
YouTube.
F the War
More stance-taking in Fuck The Warship!!!, from 2022.
‘Age-restricted’, only on
YouTube.
From the statement accompanying it:
We are for world peace, for the end of this war, which threatens not only us and Ukraine, but the whole world. The golden elite, as always, is trying to drag everyone into the meat grinder for their own benefit and prosperity. They divide and conquer. War is a business.
Hell Outside the Window (2020)
Hell outside the window, also featuring Putin at the start.
Grey streets of working-class neighborhoods
There’s garbage and dirt, little that’s good
The walls are scribbled with all kinds of s***
Misery and boredom live right next to you
Nobody cares about their damn lives
From work to home, get drunk on the weekends
Day after day, you wait for a miracle
And so your life flows in a circle
Hell outside the window – it’s what we deserve
We let them rape our lives
Let the scum be above us
Now it’s only slums, collapse, poverty
Broken asphalt, expired food in stores
Every thug carries a blade
Cops lurking in every yard
There’s no light, only destruction everywhere.
More
Watch
- Children of the Forgotten Generation (2017), especially check out the Nizhny Novgorod 2021 version
- Microdistrict (2014)
Channels
Bonus: Exploited
‘Путин’ is a cover of The Exploited’s ‘Maggie’ (which obviously refers to Margaret Thatcher). It also circulates as Maggie with some ugly additions, as seen here. Punk remains punk.
Most of the music here is also in an
R1 playlist on YouTube (in order of release).
See also
Best Russian Music and
Russian Song Lyrics.
More
Music
Anyone who wants to present Russian music cannot ignore Zemfira. Popular and mainstream – millions of records sold – but also distinctly idiosyncratic. The music is usually accessible (we categorize it under Pop), but the attitude is rock.
Raw Anti-Putin punk from
Nizhny Novgorod /
Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.
The Retuses 3x
Music
From the green city of
Zelenograd /
Зеленоград. Dreamy indie-folk with a melancholic undertone. Created by
Mikhail Rodionov (1992).
The alarm blares (Ревёт тревога), the road awaits (ждёт дорога). They are many (Их немало), we are few (нас немного). We are in an unjust world (Мы в несправедливом мире) tin wolves in the shooting range (Жестяные волки в тире).
The word offret is Swedish and means ‘sacrifice’; the band Offret is Russian and makes heavy music. The link between the word and the band: a
1986 film in Swedish by the Russian Andrei Tarkovsky.
A band from Saint Petersburg that makes a kind of post-punk/indie-pop. Not for long yet, so not much material yet. However, they already have a few very successful tracks with original music videos. До свиданья, дорогая is the
Russian title for the film
The Goodbye Girl (1977), but it has nothing to do with it.
