Last independent Russian TV station plays 'Swan Lake' before it was blocked

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In a nod to Russian media history, the country’s last independent TV station played Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet “Swan Lake” before it was blocked from the airwaves.

On Tuesday, Russia ordered that TV Rain, one of the last remaining liberal media outlets in the country, and the radio station Ekho Moskvy be shut down for what the Russian prosecutor general’s office described as spreading “false information” about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

TV Rain has said it is “temporarily suspending” operations and many of its reporters have fled Russia.

On Thursday, TV Rain’s last broadcast ended with a group shot of its staff leaving the office, followed by 12 seconds of “Swan Lake,” which Russian sate TV had famously played on a loop on Soviet channels during pivotal times in Russian history.

In 1982, when Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev died, Russian state television played the three-hour ballet as a stalling tactic while trying to come up with a succession plan. The same thing happened following the deaths of fellow Russian leaders Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.

Then in August 1991, it played during a failed coup that marked the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union.

Communist supporters had arrested Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in an attempted coup as part of a final effort to stop democratic reforms in Russia, but eventually relented when military support never came.

The Soviet Union fell about four months later and “Swan Lake” has since become a symbol for political upheaval in Russia, with many Russians feeling a sense of unease when it plays.