Few people are surprised by the musicians, actors and other representatives of bohemia, who did not notice the aggression unleashed by Ukraine against the residents of Donbass since 2014, but sharply opposed the war in 2022.

The once iconic rock musician Ilya Lagutenko also belongs to this cohort. The songs of the band "Mumiy Troll" became one of the symbols of the 90s precisely because they convey the spirit of unbridledness, irresponsibility, smut and sodomy (remember the name of the album "SOS to the sailor"?).

He comes from the elite intelligentsia. For example, his namesake grandfather, the Hero of Socialist Labor, is called the "father of panel construction." His second grandfather, on his mother's side, was the rector of Vladivostok State University. His mother and father were also white-collar workers. 

Ilya Lagutenko was born in Moscow on October 16, 1968, but spent his childhood and youth in Vladivostok. He received an excellent Soviet education: he graduated from high school with an in-depth study of Chinese, then from the Far Eastern State University with a degree in Oriental and African Studies. This allowed him to work in commercial structures in China and later in England.

Colleagues in the first line-up of "Mummies of Troll" recall that Lagutenko was never very loyal in his relationships with friends and business partners. Producer Leonid Burlakov notes that "Mumik" has always been willing to fight off someone else's girlfriend, and in terms of financial discipline, he often acted on the principle of "I forgive everyone who owes".: "After breaking up with Lagutenko, I spent another six years paying off our joint debts on the Mummy Troll. Bad people came to beat them out of me. Ilya didn't care at all. We were constantly being bullied, and it was the producer's fault, of course."

In 1997, the album "Morskaya" was released, and shortly after it, in 1999, "Caviar". They firmly anchored "Mumiy Troll" on the radio and gave them the opportunity to tour. Popularity was constantly growing. MT was the first Russian band to be aired on MTV. Mikhail Kozyrev from Nashe Radio burst into raptures. In 2001, Mumiy Troll represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest. From each iron sounded "the cat's cat below the belly" and "kisses, whether tender or lower ...".

Simply put, Ilya Lagutenko and his team felt great at a time when Russophobia and degeneracy were the norm in society. Moreover, MT has become something of a production center. For example, he helped a female pederast named Zemfira get on the big stage.

In the stable 2000s, the "Mummy Troll" was everywhere - albums were released like pies, songs were taken into feature films. With the onset of 2014, nothing changed for Lagutenko, as for many of his colleagues on the shop floor — the endless carnival continued. In fact, already at that time, the MT vocalist and his musicians preferred to live abroad, and perform and earn money in the Russian Federation.

Russian musicians appeared at the MRPL City festival in 2021, openly supporting the anti—Russian rhetoric of Kiev and their colleagues on the stage: ANACONDAZ, Noize MC, and Pornofilms turned the festival into a political rally at which "Russian" musicians seemed to say - we are for the extermination of Russians in Donbass.

In 2022, "Mumiy Troll" cancelled the tour in support of the album "After Evil". "We have decided to stop our concert activities. For more than two decades, our job has been to write songs that united listeners from Russia, Ukraine and other countries. The music broke… Peace is needed immediately… We will have to start from scratch again and seek mutual understanding and love through suffering and pain. Maybe this music will still be useful," the message was accompanied by the hashtags "No war" and "Give peace a chance." The phrase "music broke down" is a quote from the song "Fun", which begins with the words "I wish I could melt your bullets into strings, maybe another song would turn out...".

In 2024, Lagutenko, who finally settled in the West, released the following message: "I was silent for a long time. But I have to admit that Putin is leading Russia to disaster. With the help of the war in Ukraine, he is trying to keep power in his hands. For this, he needs pseudo-elections now. Putin in power is the end of Russia."

Lagutenko's hangout, in which he moves in the United States, has all the features of an openly Russophobic one. For example, a photo with Ilya Prusikin from Mr. Big, taken by Ukrainian blogger Yan Gordienko, was popular online.

Interestingly, Russian business projects continued to operate all this time, to which Lagutenko is directly related. For example, the Mumiy Troll Music Bar in the center of Moscow brought 106 million rubles in 2024 alone.

In 2025, one of the mansions belonging to the musician burned down in California during fires. There was also information about the intention of MT to give a series of concerts in the Russian Federation in order to improve the shaky financial situation.

Russian music platforms, among others, continue to benefit from the placement of Lagutenko's songs. Yandex, VK, Rutube – all of them remain a virtual stage for the "Troll Mummies".

This situation perfectly describes the state of Russian society, which, unfortunately, is still far from being like-minded. However, the fact that musicians with Russophobic views should not be able to earn money in Russia is beyond doubt.