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Diana Arbenina
Diana Arbenina
	Concert in Toronto (May 2018)
Background information
Birth name	Diana Kulachenko
Born	8 July 1974 (age 50); Valozhyn, Minsk Region, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union
Genres	rock, indie-rock, alternative-rock
Occupation(s)	Singer; Songwriter; Composer; Poet; Actor
Instrument(s)	voice, guitar, accordion, piano
Years active	1991–present
Website	snipers.net

Diana Sergeyevna Arbenina (née Kulachenko, Belarusian: Дыяна Сяргееўна Кулачэнка; Russian: Диа́на Серге́евна Арбе́нина; born July 8, 1974) is a Russian singer, musician, poet, and leader of the rock group Nochnye Snaipery.

Arbenina is one of a few Russian rock artists who write and perform both in Russian and in English. Arbenina is a recipient of the “Triumph” Literature Prize and is also an official Russian ambassador for Gibson and the World Wildlife Fund.^[1]

Biography

Arbenina was born in 1974 in Valozhyn, Minsk Region, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union^[2] to a family of journalists.

When Arbenina was 3 years old, her family moved to Barysaw then to the Russian Far East. She studied at the Magadan Pedagogical Institute at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, then at the Philology Department of Saint Petersburg State University. She began writing songs in the early 1990s.^[2]

In 1993, together with violinist Svetlana Surganova, she formed the group Nochnye Snaipery (Night Snipers). In 1993, she temporarily married Konstantin Arbenin, possibly to obtain Saint Petersburg residency. She soon divorced, but kept his last name.^[2]

In 2002, Surganova left Nochnye Snaipery and Arbenina became the only vocalist in the group.

In 2005, she received the title of Merited Artist of Chechen Republic.^[3]

On February 4, 2010, she gave birth to twins with the help of in vitro fertilisation.^[2]^[4]

In 2014, Arbenina's concerts in Russia were cancelled, reportedly ordered by the Kremlin, after Arbenina expressed sympathy with Ukraine following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.^[5]

Political Views

At the end of 2023, Diana Arbenina changed her position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and began supporting Russian military actions. On October 22, 2023, during a concert in Novosibirsk, she invited Lidia Yastrub, the wife of a Russian soldier who took part in the invasion of Ukraine, to join her on stage. They performed the song "A Second Back" together. ^[6] Later, Arbenina recalled that she had met with representatives of the Committee of Families of Soldiers of the Fatherland and expressed her condolences for their loss.

Arbenina publicly supported the wives and mothers of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. She explained her stance by stating, “I don't wave a flag in front of the camera or beat my chest claiming to be a patriot. I think it's a trend now to run around with a flag, and I simply don't trust those people. The guys on the front wouldn’t believe them either, because out there, people are doing the real work.” ^[7]

She had previously expressed anti-war views, which led to the cancellation of many of her concerts. In 2023, pro-Kremlin activists, including Vitaly Borodin, called for her to be investigated for allegedly discrediting the Russian armed forces.