Politician Scares SOULFLY Out Of Russia

MosNews.com has issued the following report:

SOULFLY, the band led by former SEPULTURA frontman Max Cavalera, cancelled its concerts in the Russian Far East cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk after an incident involving a Russian politician.

The thrash metal group was boarding a plane from Moscow to Vladivostok on April 29 when Valery Kan, a local MP in the city of Ussuriisk, reportedly attempted to take Cavalera's stepdaughter Roxanne to the business class section of the plane, SOULFLY's Russian promoters, FeeLee Management, were quoted by a Vladivostok television company as saying.

He approached Cavalera's wife [manager Gloria Cavalera] and stepdaughter with two bodyguards. Cavalera was already sitting in his seat on the plane with the other musicians. The group's backstage personnel was boarding together with his wife and daughter and tried to intervene but Kan started to threaten them. When the police arrived, Kan showed them his indentity papers, mentioning his immunity as a deputy. The policemen then told the musicians that they were unable to intervene.

SOULFLY decided to cancel its concerts in Vladivostok on April 29 and in Khabarovsk on May 3.

Initial reports suggested that Kan was drunk. When Cavalera's wife attempted to stand up for her daughter, Kan reportedly pushed her away shouting obscenities.

Later, Kan was quoted by a journalist of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper as saying he did not harass Roxanne and accused the group members of offending him. He said he did not shout obscenities or push Cavalera's wife. Kan said he was in the airport with a children's taekwondo team that came home from the championship in Italy, and just wanted to have a conversation with the musicians, but they told him to go away. However, he did not want the journalist to mention his deputy status.