Lady Gaga and Madonna are both looking at criminal charges from Russia because neither had a proper visa when they came to perform in the country during 2012.
The office of Russia's prosecutor general released a statement on Friday stating that neither had acquired the proper license to perform a concert in the state last year. The pair of pop stars both entered the country with cultural-exchange visas. But those documents "do not grant their bearers the right to engage in any commercial activity," the office stated. Essentially, Gaga and Madonna were there to share culture but they weren't allowed to play music. Unless it was completely free, of course.
Naturally, the conclusions of the Russian state aren't as cut and dry as coming to the sudden realization that they had let two huge arena tours enter the country without them knowing.
Gaga and Madonna are both active proponents of LGBT rights and always toss in words of support when playing a show. This didn't go over to well with prominent politician Vitaly Milonov, who was the deriving force in a successful attempt to ban "gay propaganda" in Russia. When the pair performed in 2012, he tried to book them in Russian court for "promoting sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors."
Who knows if this will effect the two pop stars, but at worst it will result in a fine. Neither will face Eric Snowden-style airport residency as a result. The group most likely to suffer because of this is the Russian entertainment industry. Issuing proper licenses has never been a big thing in Russia, but now that the cat's out of the bag, officials may make visiting performer's lives more difficult, and therefore discourage acts from visiting the country.
