Ukrainian music industry subcommittee head: fine for Russian songs in venues should exceed UAH 50,000
Oleksandr Sanchenko, head of the music industry subcommittee of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy (Servant of the People faction) and president of the Ukrainian Association of Music Events (UAME), believes that fines for playing Russian music in restaurants and pubs should exceed UAH 50,000 in order to be effective.
"The ban on Russian music in food service establishments, restaurants, pubs… We are also working on this. There are certain bureaucratic nuances there. I think that as a committee we will come out with a decision next year," Sanchenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that he has discussed the issue with State Language Protection Commissioner Olena Ivanovska in order to find workable mechanisms.
"There must be a clear procedure for how this is done and a clear sanction. Because now, even if the police show up, the fine is UAH 170. We all understand that for large establishments this is not an amount. They can pay UAH 170 every hour and keep going. I think it should be more than UAH 50,000 so that establishments are truly afraid to do this," he added.
As reported, in August 2023 the then State Language Protection Commissioner Taras Kremin said he supported tougher fines for the use of banned Russian musical content.