Rammstein, Till Lindemann and Russia. These three have a long and complicated relationship, also most like a love/hate relationship, or to say it in the band’s native language, “hassliebe.” Russia, the Russian people and the language often seem to inspire the band’s frontman, Lindemann. With his solo project, the excentric metal artist recently released his single, “Lubimiy Gorod” (‘Beloved Town’), entirely in Russian. He filmed the video for the song at The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and then got in trouble with the museum after he sold the footage as a NFT.

Now, the singer seems to be in trouble while in Russia, once again. On Sunday, August 29th, news hit that the artist was detained and questioned by Russian law enforcement. At first, it seemed unclear why exactly Lindemann was detained in the first place, but now it seems to be in connection with his planned performances at the Maklarin For The Motherland festival in Tver, Russia. The festival organizer, Maxim Larin, issued a statement the same night, August 28, the singer was arrested, “The festival in full, as we tried to organize, we are unable to do it due to the decision and physical obstacle of the authorities. Today and yesterday we were shown this.”

The group behind the festival previously criticized the strict COVID-19 related rules about gatherings, restricting them to only 500 attendees in some areas. There were also some subtle hints the restrictions for the festival might have been political in nature due to the connections between Larin and the Rodina Party in Russia.

Talking to BBC, Larin said, “It is a pity that the holding’s anniversary and mine were enveloped in politics and everything was destroyed.” Russian law enforcement since clarified that detaining Lindemann was not motivated by anything political but more by gathering restrictions, according to PRP.

Lindemann’s manager Anar Reiband also ran into trouble with the Russian police after he allegedly falsely stated he was in the country as a tourist. Law enforcement suspects he was involved in organizing the festival.