By Ekaterina Janashia | 2026-01-07

As the Kremlin continues to weaponize the law to ensure that those who left "keep their mouths shut," Russia's exiled artists are making noise of their own.

They have discovered that while the state can confiscate a house, it has a harder time seizing a melody. From club stages in Dubai to concert halls in Vilnius and Warsaw, musicians are breathing new life into childhood classics -- songs that are increasingly heard as "anthems for the exiled."

New Russian laws have expanded punishment beyond prison sentences, reaching into bank accounts, homes and reputations of those who criticize Moscow from abroad. Property seizures and "foreign agent" labels have created what many observers describe as yet another assault echoing the darkest chapters of Russian history.

"By reviving the old melodies, artists are reclaiming a cultural identity that the state is attempting to strip away," Sergei, 43, a Russian citizen in exile, told Kontur.

From pop to protest

Performers have started to rework music from Soviet cartoons and Perestroika-era rock. Childhood favorites now carry the weight of loss and political rupture.

Rapper Alisher Morgenshtern -- facing property seizures and harassment -- has become emblematic of the "man without a country" mood. His audiences now include the millions who fled after 2022 and seek connection to a homeland that feels unfamiliar.

One of his most resonant songs is a rendition from the 1969 cult animated musical "Bremenskiye Muzykanty" ("The Town Musicians of Bremen"). The Friends' Song now echoes across venues filled with Russians abroad.

"This song sounds like an anthem for emigrants," one concertgoer in Berlin wrote under a clip on her Instagram.

For those who left, the lyrics land differently. The playful tune, also known as "Nothing Is Better in the World," has become a manifesto of wandering solidarity.

"Tempting palace arches will never replace freedom for us," the lyrics declare, a line now widely heard as a rebuke to Kremlin privilege.

"How new and relevant this song sounds today! Alisher is an incredible performer who has totally transformed; I'm so drawn to his energy and the warmth in his eyes," user mis.lydmila commented on Instagram.

"This childhood classic hits totally differently now," user kraisota wrote.

Sergei called childhood songs "a survival mechanism."

"When the state tries to strip you of your property and your past, you cling to the melodies they can't confiscate," he said.

'A common password'

In recent months, several prominent exiled musicians have turned that impulse into a coordinated project: a pan-European street campaign titled "Favorite Classics -- Our Common Password."

Pop experimentalist Monetochka, rap veteran Noize MC, hip-hop group Kasta and Volodya Kotlyarov of the punk band Pornofilmy appeared in public squares from Prague to Berlin. They skipped their own hits and instead performed soundtracks of their youth -- songs about friendship, loyalty and a promised "bright future."

The set list draws heavily from Soviet film staples such as Guest from the Future, Mary Poppins, Goodbye, and once again The Town Musicians of Bremen. In a video posted on TikTok, Monetochka explained that these songs shaped both artists and listeners and still bind them together.

Online responses to the campaign mixed grief with resolve.

"In our reality, this takes on such terrifying shades we never imagined as children," user Irina Kharchenko wrote under the video posted on Facebook by Noize MC.

"War, the loss of our home and homeland, disappointment in the world and in people, crisis, ruptures with friends and loved ones, the impossibility of seeing our parents. We lost everything and are starting over, just trying not to lose our sanity and our humanity, while evil only grows… And the future is foggy.”

'Wind of Change'

For many, the most emotionally charged piece is "Wind of Change" from the 1983 film Mary Poppins, Goodbye. While the West associates the phrase with the rock band Scorpions, those who grew up in the Soviet Union remember a different, gentle song.

For the Russian diaspora in late 2025, the song has become something closer to a pledge. For those forced into exile, the lyrics about "winds of loss and parting" perfectly mirror the pain of leaving family, homes and a homeland.

"The Earth spins round, like a carousel from childhood, and over it swirl the winds of loss -- winds of loss, of parting, hurt and evil -- they are countless … But in this world there is a Wind of Change. It will arrive and drive away the winds of betrayal; when the time comes, it will scatter the winds of parting and of pain," the lyrics say.

The refrain promises that "everything returns to the way things were," carried by a tender breeze that restores hope.

For Sergei, the lines capture a difficult optimism.

"For us, emigrants, it is a hope that this rotten regime will end soon, and we can return home," he said.

That sense of promise has already begun spilling onto new stages.

The independent TV channel Rain organized a New Year's Eve concert featuring Monetochka and other performers now living abroad. Monetochka joined comedian and singer Maxim Galkin, whom the Kremlin has labeled a foreign agent, for a duet of "Wind of Change."

Their performance drew nearly 450,000 views on YouTube in five days. One viewer wrote, "Let the swans dance," a pointed reference to Swan Lake, which Soviet state television famously aired during moments of political crisis.