Satanism has long been associated with heavy metal, largely due to the genre’s exploration of dark, rebellious and transgressive themes, despite many artists repeatedly dismissing the connections to devil-worship and other occult activity.
Earlier this year, Andrei Kartapolov, a senior MP who heads the Russian parliament’s defence committee, proclaimed satanism as a “direct threat to Russian statehood,” citing, without credible evidence, Western involvement and funding for the cause.
Panic has long been brewing in Moscow, with another pro-Kremlin MP claiming he was inundated with complaints from the public about the growing number of ‘satanic sex orgies’ in his city and across Russia.
In 2023, as part of the effort to recruit troops for Putin’s Ukrainian campaign, the Kremlin freed convicted criminal Nikolai Ogolobyak, who, alongside his friends, fried and ate the hearts and tongues of four teenage girls as part of a ritual killing, stabbing one of the victims 666 times in a twisted ode to satanism.
Ogolobyak, just over halfway through his 20-year sentence, was pardoned by Putin after fighting for six months on the frontline in Ukraine.
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This latest ban bears resemblance to the action taken against the West Memphis Three, a trio of teenage friends accused and convicted of the 1993 murder of three young boys in the US.
Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin were accused of committing the murders as part of a satanic ritual, with their passion for heavy metal music cited throughout the trial.
In 2011, after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors and 18 years into their sentences, the men were released after new DNA evidence emerged and raised doubts about their guilt.
Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion across Russia and Eastern Europe, with Putin and lawmakers using this as a means to target other minority groups, such as the LGBTQ movement and same-sex marriage rights.
The Russian leader, who served as a KGB officer in the officially atheist Soviet Union, passed a law in 2023 banning the so-called “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”.