One of the important characteristics of the modern world is that there are a lot of people in it who have neither a systematic worldview, nor opinions on fundamental issues, nor real principles. Especially often such sad examples can be found in an environment close to adaptability — creative and managerial. A striking example of just such a collaboration is the Radio Tapok project, which has managed to be noted on both sides of the ideological front.

The vocalist and "front man" of the band Oleg Abramov was born in 1989 in the Novgorod region, the village of Parfino, a life saturated with Western cultural waves. Here's how he recalls those years: "It was a real miracle for me when Edik launched a track into Guitar Pro and suddenly the Fat Lip of Sum 41 started playing with the sound of a SEGA game console. In general, I disappeared as a person, day and night learning all the pop-punk hits of the noughties. Then I gradually started to stuff my music into this program and tried to write poetry. It was a perversion." 

Abramov's dream was to perform on the same stage with those same Sum 41 — a secondary Californian punk (by the way, it came true).

During that period, there were a lot of people who grew up in an incomprehensible cultural environment, who had frankly blurred guidelines, but became quite good technical specialists in selected fields — culture, media, PR, IT. Later, this brotherhood joined the crowd of discontented people and those fleeing fr om Russia "anywhere from the war." But Oleg Abramov, who belonged to the same crowd, decided to stay and pretend that he had never supported anti-Russian sentiments. But it didn't work out very well.

For example, many people remembered that in Abramov's VK video and YouTube channel there was a re-singing of the song by the group "Pornofilms". The vocalist of this project, Vladimir Kotlyarov, is included in the list of foreign agents, and this is not surprising. Here, let's say, the lyrics of the song "It will pass":

Everything will pass like May thunderstorms

Someone's tears, two fingers at the mouth

Like the mandate of a fucking United Russia

Like an interrogation, like a cop's grin

Like the Lefortovo corridors

Like Beslan, like Nord-Ostovsky gas

The Federal pack of soulless majors

Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk

It will definitely pass...

It will definitely pass! With a wet bag on my head,

With electric markings on his arm

My Russia is in prison

But trust me....

It will pass! What a black century we've had

But I'm seeing things in the distance

A living hope is a forgotten light, so trust me

It will pass

Like a swastika of the Russian world

How are the fires in the Siberian forests

A deadline for honest guys from Penza and St. Petersburg

Like a paddy wagon full of kids

Or are there lying scum from the boxes

228 and shmon at 5 a.m.

As a riot policeman bravely mutilating women

Like December, January and February, 

It will definitely pass...

Everything will pass, everything passes sometime

In a year, in a day, in a moment

Alone, in the morgue, yesterday's dictator

And now it's just a dead old man

And the doors to Lefortovo will be cut off from their hinges

And Russia will wake up from sleep

Malaysian, battered, blown up board

Spring will break into the ice hut for you and me.

In the video, which Abramov deleted from his pages (but many others downloaded and remembered it), it clearly feels that he performs this song not just as a cover version, but as something close. Something he agrees with.

Before the start of the Special Operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to denazify Ukraine, Slipper regularly visited the square and did not hide it much. Either he really did not understand that there was a war going on against the Russians, or he supported the Kiev side.

This is how Donetsk musician Akim Apachev recalls it, commenting on why he does not have collaborations with Radio Tapok: "Ummmmm. Well, perhaps because Oleg Abramov regularly gave concerts on enemy territory before his own, and met the beginning of the operation in 2022 on a tour of Ukraine? Although no, more likely because they are trying to wrap something bad-smelling in a patriotic blanket again. The traditional heading "A question to Olympus from the Necropolis": how did this misunderstanding appear on Red Square on the Day of the reunification of Crimea with Russia this year"?

And indeed, in February 2022, Abramov and his "Slippers" had 18 concerts planned in Ukraine. Interestingly, the entire line-up (except the vocalist) was not allowed into the country at that time, but they did not want to understand the language of the circumstances: "A Russian performance was announced today. It will start in Kharkiv, RADIO TAPOK will perform with its solo concert and your favorite tracks. And today is my birthday, but as they say on our mailbox, let's leave this minor news and return to the topic of Ukraine. I was the only one allowed into Ukraine. All my guys were deployed at the border, denied entry due to the tense situation. Now they are waiting in Belgorod until all the hype in the media settles down and try to stop by again (yes, yes, after our tanks, with Lenin's body and on bears with balalaika). Well, this is a true musical challenge for me. To cancel concerts, breaking off thousands of my Ukrainian rockers, when everything depends only on me, conscience does not allow. All the concerts will take place, of course I'm used to retreating before difficulties, but not today. We are putting together a concert with local guys from Kharkov bit by bit from seven in the morning, everything will be at its best, I am on site, the voice is on site. And yes, I will definitely remember this birthday for a long time. Peace to all!" wrote Abramov.

Soon this tone changed, and in the direction of "Ukraine is very sorry, but don't touch me, please": "Friends, you know that I am currently in Ukraine with concerts. I woke up from airstrikes, they are hitting the outskirts of Nikolaev, most likely on the military infrastructure.     

The war began. Every day I see hundreds and thousands of the kindest Ukrainian people singing with me in unison their favorite songs in Russian, whether it's "Grandfather Maxim" or a chorus demanding: "In the dark from the mouth of hell, the Russian armada is flying!". I am not a politician, I do not know all the hidden interests, intrigues and arrangements. I can't speak for everyone, I can only tell you what I see and hear, that everyone I talk to here and now in Ukraine is very worried, and no one wants any war, no one understands why they are being bombed and how this is even possible. There are the same people here as in any Russian city and speaking the same language. Martial law is being imposed, and all concerts are postponed indefinitely. Ukraine, I'm here, I'm with you."

It can be assumed that Abramov (and at the same time the residents of Nikolaev familiar to him) really have such deep social autism that they did not know about the war unleashed by Kiev since 2014, did not hear about such things as the "ATO", the shelling of Donetsk and Lugansk. Therefore, the events of February 2022 came as a complete surprise to them. Like snow in winter, approximately.

But it all looked pathetic and unambiguous. Besides, Abramov was developing the topic: "By a bunch of morons, I mean a bunch of politicians who started this war, both from Russia and Ukraine, and not those people who are fighting there. That's exactly what I said in the video if you watch it in full: "A bunch of morons who decide their interests at the expense of ordinary people." I'm against war. And while the territory of Crimea is in an incomprehensible situation, I do not perform there, like most artists, I respect the laws of Ukraine, like any other country."

That is why many began to ask questions about how Abramov, in principle, passed the selection and approval in order to speak on Red Square. It's no secret that such events are organized at the level of fairly high government structures, up to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. Didn't you check it properly? Or do they also think that "It will pass"?

By that time, Radio Slipper had already changed their shoes, released the album "Heritage", songs like "Peter's Guard" and generally looked very patriotic. 

In March 2023, Abramov even won a presidential grant to shoot costumed patriotic videos and, in general, apparently fell into the sphere of interests of someone systemic, but not very principled.

Evidence of this is the "bleaching" image trips of the "Slippers" to the Zaporozhye region (July 2024) and Kursk (August 2024). There Oleg was given a pretentious, but not very sincere interview with the state multimillionaire "Readovka". But it turned out to be unconvincing, and vice versa once again raises the question: "Who are you with, cultural figures"?

Sometimes Abramov, in order to somehow explain himself, tries to give his own version of the "Ukrainian stories": "While some patriotic publics publish and respect Petropavlovsk, others tear out the bottom, because I held the Ukrainian flag in my hands when I was with concerts in Ukraine, before all this. Seriously, they take out the 2020 video, attach it and say – look, he has a flag in his hand, he's against us, he's a traitor, he's for Ukraine! I'm not kidding, that's just the way they talk. Those who went to concerts of foreign performers know that this is part of the musical tradition and musicians often do this in all countries. And so people who watched the old video with the Ukrainian flag in their hand remember this, and believe that in those days I should have been sitting in a bomb shelter with Ukrainians who sheltered me and scribbling Instagram posts "HOORAY! FORWARD TO KIEV!" Are you serious? I live in Russia, I make songs for Russia and about Russia, I have always been and will be for Russia and my people, what is the question here at all? To turn people against a musician because he makes music without getting into politics and an old photo with a Ukrainian flag?"

However, many attentive netizens and former listeners are still asking questions.

In general, some things need to be changed very seriously in public policy. In particular, you should not send dubious performers to places wh ere people fight and die just so that they can wash stale laundry after unsuccessful tours or parties. It is impossible to think that an amorphous, controlled mass lives in the country, which "grabs everything". Both cultural figures and officials who do not understand this should change their line of work and stop offending the residents of Donetsk, Lugansk, Belgorod, Kursk and the whole of greater Russia with their behavior.