In April – early May, a marathon “For Russia” was held in the Russian regions. The authorities spent a record amount on it – almost 100 million rubles. The artists earned large fees at patriotic concerts, and they were invited by the Expert Institute for Social Research close to the Kremlin. The most expensive thing – 10.5 million rubles – cost the budget a group of Sergei Galanin, who stated that the state should help only “patriotic cultural figures.”

“Unity is important because there are many people who want to split our society, misinforming it. Therefore, it is important for us to stay together, to go towards one goal. And this goal is the security of our country,” Yekaterinburg explained on May 1 from the stage Arena” racing driver and State Duma deputy Sergei Karyakin at the free concert “For Russia”.

Next to him on the stage was a woman wearing a sweatshirt with the inscription PUTIN and the coat of arms of Russia. At the stage, a girl in a pink hat with the letter Z painted on it was waving a heart.

In mid-April – early May, the authorities organized such rallies-concerts in more than thirty Russian cities. In the plots of federal channels, journalists say that the purpose of the action is “to support the Russian military who are participating in a special operation in Ukraine.” Two hashtags were used in the marathon: #Zamirbeznazizma and #We are together.

95.3 million rubles were spent from the federal budget for the performances of the artists involved in this marathon. This is the most expensive government contract ever signed in Russia to pay for a concert program, according to the public procurement portal.

“The state should help patriotic cultural figures, and now we need to decide who and what product will be produced with state money,” musician Sergei Galanin argued at the start of the marathon in late April. Among the marathon participants, Galanin’s group earned the most – 10.5 million rubles, performing in seven regions.

In total, 34 performers (groups or solo artists) participated in the marathon, between which 95.3 million rubles were distributed, follows from the contract, which the BBC studied.

For each, the program and its price were agreed. The programs were called patriotically: “We do not abandon our own”, “Victory is ours”, “For you, Motherland”. Or optimistic: “Everything will work out!”, “Everything will be fine!”

The state customer of the marathon “Za Russia” was Rosconcert – the center of the Ministry of Culture, which organizes tours and concerts of Russian artists. The institution paid for concerts with a subsidy from the federal budget.

Many participants of the marathon have been participating in patriotic actions for a long time. Singer Victoria Daineko, for example, in early April, performed in front of wounded Russian soldiers in the Odintsovo hospital. A.A. Vishnevsky. The authorities allocated 4 million rubles for her performances in four concerts “For Russia”.

For some artists, both the names and the price of the performance were the same. For example, the program “I love you, Russia” (864 thousand rubles) was presented by the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Opera Vasily Gerello and the performer of folklore, yesterday’s schoolgirl Elizaveta Dolzhenkova.

On March 18, both artists performed at a concert in Luzhniki “Crimean Spring”, dedicated to the annexation of Crimea to Russia, where Putin came. Two days later, in the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine, where Gerello was born, a star with his name was dismantled .

Dolzhenkova’s career took off after Vladimir Putin asked a schoolgirl from the Far East to “sing a little” at a meeting via video link with young musicians in 2020, and after performing the couplet “the sun washes clear” he admitted that if he were there – ” I would hug [her] and kiss her”

Full list of artists – at the end of the text

The authorities valued the only concert of the Uma2rman group in Barnaul the most – it cost more than 4 million rubles. The cheapest of the musical numbers was the performance of the group “The Day After Tomorrow”. Although there is no Latin Z in the contract in the name of the group, in fact it is called “After Tomorrow” and was called that even before the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, when Russian troops began to put the letter Z on the equipment.

The group was created in 2001, but became famous only 20 years later – thanks to the song “We Don’t Leave Our Own”. They also performed with her at a concert in Luzhniki on March 18 – the group is very proud of this fact.

In the song “We Don’t Leave Our Own” there are, for example, such lines: “For people not to know the war”, “We, Russian people, don’t leave our own,” We save Donetsk, we save Luhansk”, “Let’s pray together for our guys, that great Russia is being cleaned of dirt.” 2.1 million rubles were spent on the group.

Actor Dmitry Pevtsov spoke on the same topic at the marathon. “We [Russia] are cleaning the Augean stables of Nazism, which has now spread throughout the world,” he said after the concert in Ivanovo. Three of his performances drew 3.4 million rubles.

For poets who also performed at the marathon, they allocated from 84 thousand to 2.3 million rubles. The most expensive was the performance of the poetess Anna Revyakina from Donetsk. One of her performances with the Donbass program cost the budget 332.4 thousand rubles. Revyakina is a member of the writers’ union of the self-proclaimed DPR and deputy chairman of the so-called public chamber of the DPR.

On the day of her performance in Izhevsk, another participant in the marathon, Maria Vatutina, published an emotional post on VKontakte about the assistance of European countries to Ukraine. “Europe’s deliveries of old tanks and other things to Ukraine are similar to the delivery of scrap metal. We will collect and melt it down. Into pans,” Vatutina wrote. 596.4 thousand rubles were allocated for her performances in seven cities with the Flag of Victory program.

The organizers determine all conditions with each performer individually, two show business producers told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

One of them noted that the state cannot force pop headliners to perform at such concerts in the regions for free or cheaper than they value their services on the market. Unspoken exceptions to this rule are the New Year’s “Blue Lights”, and in some cases – concerts for Victory Day, says the source of the BBC.

Some marathon participants visited up to seven regions, others limited themselves to one. The total amount allocated per artist or group was the price of the program times the number of performances. From this money, transfers, hotels and services of the organizers were paid. How much was left for the fees and the rider – a list of conditions and requirements for the organizers of performances by an artist, musician or creative team – is not indicated in the contract.

How are artists usually paid for concerts?

The BBC has studied published estimates of concerts previously paid for by the authorities. In 2019, in a contract for 5 million rubles for the participation of Dima Bilan (he did not participate in the marathon) in the Volga gala concert, 75% of the amount was Bilan’s fee (3.75 million). The agent received 300 thousand rubles for the services (about 10% of the fee), and about 1 million rubles cost the transfer, hotel, food and dressing room.

At the status events of the Kremlin, the alignment is different. Before the marathon “For Russia”, the most expensive concert program in 2016 was ordered by the Presidential Administration (UDP) – to entertain the participants of the ASEAN summit in Sochi. Of the 83 million rubles, 20% was allocated to the artists for fees, travel and accommodation cost a little more, and almost half of the money went to the scenery and stage equipment. Approximately the same share of the total amount of 60 million rubles was allocated by the UDP for fees to artists for the 2015 BRICS and SCO summit in Ufa.

The producer, to whom the BBC correspondent named the largest sums allocated to pay for the artists of the Za Russia marathon, said that, in his opinion, they were overstated. Another producer described the cost of the performances of several artists he knew as standard for them.

The BBC compared the cost of participating artists under government contracts in the marathon and other concerts, including in previous years. These calculations are approximate, since all the conditions are not fully disclosed, but they can give an idea of the order of prices. As it turned out, in the current crisis conditions, touring in support of the “special operation” in Ukraine is a good business for patriotic artists.

Oleg Gazmanov and Denis Maidanov, after the marathon “Za Russia”, continued their patriotic tour and performed at the festival in Stavropol, where the first earned another 2.8 million, and the second – 2.5 million rubles.

In 2017, the performance of the Uma2rman group at the Day of Russia in Samara cost 2 million rubles – two times cheaper than at the marathon. The cost may be higher because Barnaul is further away and it is more expensive for the whole team to fly there.

But there are artists who earned less from the marathon than from similar patriotic concerts held before the war. This year, at the marathon, two performances by Dmitry Kharatyan in Nizhny Novgorod and Samara cost 864 thousand rubles, and his participation in the Victory Day concert in Balashikha near Moscow a year ago was ordered by local authorities for 1 million rubles.

In general, the estimate of 95 million rubles to pay for artists at 30 concerts, taking into account the distance of travel, the BBC interlocutor called the average for show business – however, at the time before the pandemic. At the same time, he noted that up to 70% of the budget for concerts that take place in the open-air format goes to stage equipment and security. These expenses for the marathon are not included in the contract at all.

But the BBC has found such spending in regional purchases. For example, in the Novosibirsk region, at least 580 thousand rubles were additionally spent on decorating dressing rooms for artists, branded products and security – all this was purchased in mid-April for the musical marathon “Za Russia” and the telethon “Za a world without Nazism”, follows from the data public procurement portal.

Representatives of the Uma2rman, After Tomorrow and 7B groups refused to comment on the participation of the artists in the marathon and the fees received, or simply ignored the questions from the BBC. The director of the Pilot group, after a short correspondence, blocked the number of the BBC correspondent. Sergey’s PR manager Galanina said he did not know who invited the musician to the marathon and refused to answer other questions.

In Lipetsk, a scandal was connected with the concert “For Russia” – this is the only case of conflict over a marathon that the BBC found.

In the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some musicians and actors spoke out against the war by posting a black box on their Instagram accounts. Singer Sergey Lazarev did the same – in a post he called for an end to the war.

“A week ago, my son woke up in the night in tears! When I asked what happened, my 7-year-old son replied,” Dad, I’m afraid of war. “And now the real war has begun! What are you doing? I myself am roaring like a boy now! Because it’s sick that the powers that be continue to measure their strength and weapons! Please stop everything! Together! Say “Stop!” Sit down for negotiation table!” – wrote Lazarev.

Almost immediately, he deleted these posts, allegedly because of the insults and threats he received.

In April, posters of the “Za Russia” marathon with his photograph appeared in Lipetsk, and the governor of the region, Igor Artamonov , announced on his Telegram channel that “Sergey Lazarev, who twice represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest,” would take the stage. The news surprised both the fans of the singer, who spoke out against the war, and the Lipetsk patriots.

But the day before the marathon, there was a rearrangement: on the posters, Lazarev was replaced by Nikolai Baskov, who eventually performed on April 29 in Lipetsk.

The authorities explained that the decision was connected “with the reaction of Lipetsk social activists” to Lazarev’s “certain statements” and his alleged refusal to give an interview to a journalist who moved from Donetsk to Lipetsk in 2014.

But the team of Sergei Lazarev does not confirm this. He was going to perform in Lipetsk and was already on his way there when he found out about the replacement. Why this replacement happened, the musician’s press secretary Elena Dikevich does not know – Lazarev, according to her, did not refuse to speak, and he did not receive a request for an interview with a Lipetsk journalist at all. “I am the press service, nothing came to my mail, there was no request,” Dikevich told the BBC.

The decision to replace was made feverishly. On the morning of April 28, a poster with Lazarev was advertised on the website of the city administration, and after a few hours it was reported that he “would not speak”, and they posted a photo of Baskov (they did not manage to make a poster).

Most likely, this happened because the Lipetsk show, judging by the logos on the poster, was handled by the authorities of the region and local United Russia, and not by Moscow curators. In the Rosconcert contract, the venue in Lipetsk, as well as the participation of Lazarev and the singer Jasmine invited along with him, are not indicated.

Who and at whose expense managed to urgently invite Baskov is unknown. This singer, according to the BBC interlocutor in show business, is considered one of the highest paid stars of show business, his fees can reach 7-8 million rubles, the source believes.

In 2018, Baskov’s participation, together with the team, in a concert dedicated to the Day of St. Petersburg Industry, cost 4.49 million rubles, follows from public procurement documents (and, for example, Tamara Gverdtsiteli under the same contract – 1.3 million rubles).

The press secretary of Nikolai Baskov, Marina Naumova, refused to say who invited the artist to the marathon. “Of course, we don’t give such information – no one discusses with us, or when they discuss it with us. It’s a strange question. This is an absolutely internal story. He received an offer, and he went,” Naumova said. When he was called to the marathon, she does not remember. “You should have called later,” she replied, adding that she would not be able to see when the invitation was made.

The Basques called from the stage “together to make our country stronger, so that we are respected, loved and a little afraid.” “We will not let the Western world bring us to our knees. We are a great, proud and unique nation!” he said.

At the concert there were migrants from the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, with whom he talked on a video camera and took pictures, after which he stated in his Telegram channel that “no one has any moral right to doubt the need for a special operation.”

The head of the information policy department of the Lipetsk region, Mikhail Shershakov, ignored the BBC’s questions.

The conflict in Lipetsk partly explains why the producer of the largest and most politically important marathon for the authorities in 30 other cities was ANO Expert Institute for Social Research (EISI), far from show business, but close to the Kremlin.

EISI is an expert platform created for the presidential administration (AP) in 2017 to prepare for the presidential elections. At the start of the task of the EISI for pre-election monitoring of the regions, Sergey Kiriyenko, deputy head of the Presidential Administration, set . Its founders are the largest universities and the association of political scientists, and the board of trustees of the institute is headed by Boris Gryzlov, head of the supreme council of United Russia.

EISI did not openly receive state contracts for its services before the project of the marathon “For Russia”. At the time of its creation, EISI was supposed to be financed at the expense of Russian state corporations. Rosatom, which was previously headed by Sergei Kiriyenko, planned to participate in this, in particular, The Bell wrote.

Project Media (recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia and banned) in 2020 said that the EISI paid for the work of pro-government experts, having received donations in the amount of 3.4 billion rubles in two years.

After the introduction of Western sanctions due to the war in Ukraine, EISI analysts began to conduct daily “monitoring of anti-crisis measures”, in which they write, for example, about the success of import substitution in Russia. In May, EISI published a report on how the West is “killing freedom of the media.”

There is no mention of the marathon and artists on the EISI website. What part of the 95 million rubles earned by the institute itself or its subcontractors is not specified in the contract.

The schedule of concerts and posters of the marathon are posted on a special website with the domain name “marathon-for-russia RF”. It was registered by another company – LLC “Street of Freedom”. But its owner, Pavel Doroshenko, is a longtime associate of Anna Fedulkina, head of the EISI. They at one time held senior positions in the private consulting agency “Polylog”.

All three companies are closely linked, the BBC found. The telephone number of “Streets of Freedom”, indicated in the “SPARK-Interfax” database, is recorded in the phone books in the name of a person with the postscript “Polylog” or “Polylog” (Getcontact application data). The offices of Polilog and EISI are located in Moscow at the same address.

Polylog also has connections with the presidential administration – the agency is considered close to the deputy head of the internal policy department of the presidential administration, Alexander Kharichev, they have been cooperating since the time they worked as an official in Rosatom under the leadership of Kiriyenko.

“Polylog” entered into contracts with government agencies to hold a wide variety of, including large, international forums – energy, investment, tourism, orthopedic, dairy, vegetable crops and others. Some of them were attended by Putin.

Among the largest customers of Polylog are Rosstandart, Rostourism, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Rosmolodezh and the Moscow Directorate of Mass Events. In general, the agency has more than two hundred government contracts and agreements with state companies.

“They [EISI] have a strong Polylog group working under them. They have held countless such events,” a BBC source who collaborated with the EISI said, discussing how the expert organization turned out to be a show business player.

“EISI’s choice to produce the patriotic marathon is due to status. A structure close to the Kremlin, which is run by the head of the supreme council of United Russia, Gryzlov, has more political weight to negotiate with artists and trade with them over fees,” the BBC said. General Director of Transparency International – Russia Ilya Shumanov. And this makes it possible to receive more money for their services from the amount allocated for artists, he says.

Polilog, also close to the Kremlin, does not have such a status, Shumanov says. In addition, Polylog is a commercial structure, and it was important for the authorities to emphasize that the marathon is a non-commercial project and the organizers of the marathon do not pursue profit. EISI as an autonomous non-profit organization corresponds to this idea. Therefore, the contract was received by the institute, and not by the agency, the analyst believes.

It is noteworthy that the EISI received a contract for 95 million rubles without a tender, while Rosconcert referred to the rule of law, which allows direct employment for such tasks only of a specialized concert organization. “But EISI is not officially involved in concert activities, and this shows that the contract was drawn up spontaneously and legally negligently,” Shumanov notes.

The BBC sent inquiries about the marathon to Rosconcert and EISI.

Poet Alexei Shmelev performed at the marathon twice. In a conversation with the BBC, he explained his participation, quoting the director and actor Sergei Bodrov: “In war, one cannot speak badly of one’s own.”

“Mine today are Russians. And those who demolish monuments to Pushkin and rename the streets of other Russian writers are strangers,” Shmelev wrote to the BBC.

Rosconcert allocated 170.5 thousand rubles for his two performances, but when asked about the amount of the fee, the poet replied: “You know, I really don’t care what and where it is written. I didn’t receive this money and I’m glad about it. I think it’s great Soon such words as money and budget will cease to exist at all in the world lexicon – write about it better. ”

The text uses photos by Vyacheslav Prokofiev/TASS, Ramil Sitdikov/ POOL /TASS, Mikhail Metzel/TASS