How a teen street musician became the face of the Kremlin's crackdown

Dozens of young people wave their phone flashlights and sing along with a teen as she belts out lyrics and plays her keyboard outside a subway station

Dozens of young people wave their phone flashlights and sing along with a teen as she belts out lyrics and plays her keyboard outside a subway station.

It’s a scene that regularly plays out in cities around the world. But the singer in this widely shared video is now behind bars.

Diana Loginova, the 18-year-old student and street musician, has emerged as an unlikely — and perhaps unwilling — voice of defiance in wartime Russia.

Known by her stage name Naoko, the teen gained popularity over the summer with viral videos taken around St. Petersburg of her band Stoptime performing songs by musicians who have spoken out against Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Inevitably, in a country where nearly all forms of dissent have been crushed, Russian authorities quickly took notice.

Diana Loginova sits near the courtroom before the start of a hearing on Oct. 16.Andrei Bok / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesNaoko was first detained last month for organizing a “mass simultaneous gathering of citizens” during a performance, which authorities said disrupted public order, and was sentenced to 13 days behind bars. She has since been rearrested twice on the same charges, as well as for petty hooliganism, and put back in prison. Her fellow band members have also served back-to-back sentences, although one has since been released.