On October 11, the Russian president met with the frontmen of several Russian rock groups in the Rhythm Blues Cafe. Medvedev talked about his taste in music.
On October 11, the Russian president met with the frontmen of several Russian rock groups in the Rhythm Blues Cafe. Medvedev talked about his taste in music.
Andrei Makarevich, Vladimir Shakhrin, Alexei Kortnev, Sergei Galanin and other musicians sat down with the president.
Andrei Makarevich arranged the meeting. He asked the head of state to help with the musical festival “The Creation of the World”, which is held in Kazan each year.
The president said that the festival has clearly been neglected. “We will help you. We will solve the problem. It’s not a big problem,” he said.
During the meeting, Medvedev told the musicians that he started listening to music as a child and can work and listen to music at the same time, unlike many other people who find music distracting. “I had the same habits as when I was a child. I always listened to music. It’s natural for me. To tell you the truth, when I was writing my thesis on a very boring legal topic, I always had my cassette player on,” Medvedev said.
At his meeting with the musicians, Dmitry Medvedev touched the problem of copyrights in Russia. “I think we have to sign new global conventions on copyrights. Why? Because all the agreements – the Geneva convention on copyright and the Berne convention – were made ages ago. There weren’t the same ways of copying information as there are now, when gigabytes of information can be downloaded in seconds – this is a completely different world,” the president said.
The lead signer of Chaif, Vladimir Shakhrin, said, “The thing is, we want people like, say, the composer Shainsky to have decent living conditions when they are over 80.”
The musicians performed their own songs and some foreign ones too. At the end of the meeting, the musicians had their photos taken with the Russian president and presented him with an electric guitar with their autographs.
