Crowds Swarm Moscow Church to Mourn Rapper Pasha Technique
Thousands of fans mourning underground Russian rapper Pasha Technique gathered outside a Moscow church during his funeral service on Friday, blocking traffic and prompting police to disperse crowds and detain at least two people.
Pasha Technique, whose real name was Pavel Ivlev, died at the age of 40 on Saturday after being hospitalized in a medically induced coma with severe lung damage in the Thai resort of Phuket.
The abstract rapper, who had struggled with drug addiction and became a cult figure through internet memes, had been in the hospital for 10 days before his death.
As many as 8,000 people gathered outside the Peter and Paul Church in eastern Moscow to pay their respects, according to the independent news outlet SOTAvision.
Videos showed crowds of mostly young fans chanting his name and spilling into the street, briefly blocking traffic near the church entrance. National Guard troops and riot police were deployed to the scene, with some officers reportedly throwing snowballs to disperse the crowd.
At least two people were detained, including Maxim Uryadov, founder of the HelpMe addiction clinic’s video project “Vyzhivshiye” (“Survivors”), who had flown a drone over the crowd, according to the rights watchdog OVD-Info.
Following a nearly three-hour funeral service, Pasha Technique’s casket was transported to the Nikolo-Arkhangelskoye cemetery in the eastern Moscow suburb of Balashikha.
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