The band members were ordered to appear at the headquarters of the Moscow City Police on Monday for an “interrogation,” said group soloist Maria Lyubicheva.

The phone call from the police headquarters informed the band that the electro-punk song “Gotov” (“Ready”), which was performed at the rally on Moscow’s Pushkin Square, can be interpreted as extremist.

Lyubicheva told the BBC that the offending lyrics – “to set fire to cop cars at night” and “the law is garbage” – have been taken out of context.

The chorus of the song, which was read without instrumental accompaniment at the rally, reads: I’m ready!/ And are you ready?/ To set fire to cop cars at night?/ It’s like a principle of life, a sign of good taste/ For those to whom the law is garbage.

“The song needs to be listened to in its entirety, because if you take lines out of context, then you can intentionally misconstrue any piece of work and call it extremist,” said Lyubicheva, who wrote the song’s lyrics.

According to the artist, the chorus speaks about the sacrifices that two people are prepared to make for the sake of their love.

Songs containing derogatory remarks about the Russian police cost popular rapper Noize MC a ten-day jail sentence in August.

The rapper, famous for his indictment of the Moscow police in his song “Mercedes S-666,” labeled some law enforcement officers “animals with red insignia” after they tried to stop him from handing a hat to attendees of one of his concerts in Volgograd in order to collect donations – a routine part of the artist’s program.

After the concert, Noize MC was detained for 48 hours and convicted the next day of minor hooliganism.

The rally in defense of the Khimki Forest on August 22 was sanctioned by the Moscow city authorities, a move that surprised organizers used to being denied permission to hold opposition events. At the same time, police refused to allow sound equipment to be set up on the stage.

The authorities argued that the use of sound equipment would turn the rally into a concert, which they did not grant permission to hold. However, as oppositionists noted, sound equipment is always used at their various other rallies.

In the end, a variety of musical groups, including Barto and headlined by rock singer Yury Shevchuk, performed acoustically with only the aid of megaphones.

Well-known culture critic Artemy Troitsky said on late Tuesday that Ekho Moskvy radio, widely considered to be one of the only sources of unfettered journalism left in Russia, prohibited him from playing a song by the popular rap group Noize MC on the program Osoboye Mneniye (“Special Opinion”). The song blames Lukoil Vice President Anatoly Barkov as at fault for a fatal car crash in Moscow last month that left two women dead.

Upon speaking with Ekho Moskvy Deputy Director Sergei Buntman, Troitsky was told that he couldn’t play the song because it didn’t fit the station’s format and “we have never had this before.” He also expressed concern that playing the song could result in accusations of copyright violation, since Osoboye Mneniye is broadcast in America and Israel on RTVi television.

When Troitsky told Buntman that the rapper had actually given him a recording of the song complete with all broadcasting rights, Buntman was silent. When Troitsky added that Osoboye Mneniye was a “rotten program,” Buntman responded in outrage and told Troitsky that he would no longer be allowed to host the show. Having other broadcasting duties at the station, Troitsky says that he doesn’t plan to file any complaints but is concerned at the incident.

The car accident in question occurred on February 25 on Moscow’s Gagarin Square, and left 36-year-old driver Olga Aleksandrina and 72-year-old Vera Sidelnikova dead. Barkov and his driver sustained only minor injuries. Police were quick to lay blame for the accident on Aleksandrina, but witnesses have since come forward claiming that Barkov’s armored Mercedes had been driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid a traffic jam. The resulting scandal has brought attention to Moscow residents’ long-held concerns that elite members of Russian society are given free reign by the police to commit gross traffic violations.

As of the time of publication, a YouTube video Noize MC’s song, “Mercedes S 666” has received more than 224 thousand views.

Troitsky’s blog post can be read in Russian by clicking here.