UnNews:Putin sings with Expelled Agents
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| Putin sings with Expelled Agents | 
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26 July 2010
MOSCOW, Russia -- During a recent night on the town, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin provided encouragement and sang rock songs with Russian glam-band, The Expelled Agents, who were deported from the United States this month after being accused of playing rock music in America without a Rock Permit.
"I am sure they will work in decent clubs. I am sure they will have an interesting and bright life," Putin told reporters Saturday as he described his performance with the group, state media RIA-Novosti said.
Putin, a former blues harmonica player with cold-war Death-Metal outrage, KGB, said that envious American promoters enabled the illegal Russian band to be uncovered, adding that he knew the names of those responsible, but they had no idea who he was.
“Betrayers always end up badly taking to drink, drugs, suicide or Justin Bieber music," he said, according to the news agency.
The Russian band members pleaded guilty in the United States earlier this month to the charge of failing to obtain a Rock Permit as foreign musicians and were ordered out of the country.
In Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder said none of the band members had illegally recorded any copyrighted songs, and therefore none had been charged with copyright violation. But U.S. officials said the group had been under observation by the American Musicians Union for more than a decade.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told MTV's "NewsHour" that although the band didn't plead guilty to music copyright violation, they "were clearly caught in the business of playing rock music without valid rock permits."
After being arrested, the players were ordered out of the country and the United States and Russia completed an elaborately choreographed musicians swap, using chartered planes to exchange the Russian band in the U.S. with four American musicians who had been imprisoned for allegedly playing Russian patriotic songs in Russia without any reversals.
Putin told reporters Saturday that the life of a Russian glam-rock musician in America is difficult.
"Imagine - they have to master a foreign language as your own, think and sing it, and fulfill tasks in the interests of their motherland for many years without counting on payola. And the American groupies.. horrid!" he said.
Sources[edit]
- Wire Staff "Putin joins expelled Russian agents in song". CNN, July 26, 2010