Famed Russian singer likely to be labelled ‘foreign agent’

MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors have asked the justice ministry to label Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a “foreign agent”, the state RIA news agency reported.

Pugacheva, 74, a Soviet and then post-Soviet icon, has been criticising the war in Ukraine.

She is one of Russia’s most famous people – known across generations for hits such as the 1982 song “Million Scarlet Roses” and the 1978 film “The Woman who Sings”.

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Pugacheva has in the past been feted by both President Vladimir Putin and his predecessor Boris Yeltsin.

When Mikhail Gorbachev died in 2022, she praised the last Soviet leader for allowing freedom and rejecting violence.

She joins a small but growing number of Russian citizens who have spoken out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict in which Russia has suffered heavy losses and failed to accomplish most of its stated goals.