Singer Yegor Kreed faced fierce criticism from “patriotic” commentators after appearing in his new music video, “Mily ublyudok” (“Sweet Bastard”), wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with a design inspired by the Soviet film “Idi i smotri” (“Come and See”).
“Idi i smotri,” directed by Elem Klimov, was released in 1985 to mark the 40th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War.
The film follows a boy who goes from a cheerful teenager to a gray-haired old man after witnessing the Nazis burn the residents of a Belarusian village alive in a reprisal attack.
Readers of Sovetsky Ekran magazine voted it the best film of 1986. Many viewers still consider “Idi i smotri” one of the hardest films about the Great Patriotic War to watch.
Moscow concept store KM20 produced the shirt in collaboration with the American brand Marking Distance. Its design is based on the official poster for “Idi i smotri,” which features a large illustration of the main character’s face. On the shirt, the face has tattoos, assault rifles appear on the sleeves, and machine-gun ammunition belts cover the back. KM20‘s website listed the shirt for 38,600 rubles.
After social media users noticed the shirt, pro-government commentators began denouncing Kreed, accusing him of disrespecting the memory of those who died in the Great Patriotic War. Activists in Yekaterinburg filed complaints with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee, demanding that Kreed be prosecuted under the law against insulting the memory of victims of the genocide of the Soviet people.
Among Kreed’s critics was Yekaterina Mizulina, head of the Safe Internet League, who reports people to the authorities. She said the shirt was no accident but part of an “effort to erase humanity’s historical memory.” “Western leaders want to erase from the minds of people around the world the memory of how their grandfathers burned people in gas chambers and shot thousands of Jews, Slavs, and people of other nationalities,” she said. Mizulina, who is married to pop singer Shaman, had already clashed publicly with Kreed: She called a routine performed by a dancer in underwear at his summer 2025 concert at Luzhniki “indecent.”
Kreed apologized for wearing the shirt. He said he had never seen or heard of the film and therefore did not know the image was based on the poster for “Idi i smotri.” To him, Kreed said, it was “just a designer item sitting on a shelf, available for anyone to buy.”
I want to say something important: The memory of the Great Patriotic War and the tragedy people endured is sacred to me. This is our shared history, and I will always treat it with respect.
The musician also said he had intended “no political or historical message” with the outfit.
The image was eventually blurred in Kreed’s official music video. The shirt was removed from the online store, and KM20 deleted a post about Kreed’s video from its social media accounts. The brand’s owners have not commented publicly on the controversy. Mosfilm said it had not granted KM20 permission to use the poster for “Idi i smotri” and was now consulting lawyers. The studio said the “distortion” of the poster was “unacceptable.”
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