Police at Moscow Station in St. Petersburg detained rock musician Dmitry Galyanskikh, frontman of the band Svoboda vazhnee mody (Freedom Is More Important Than Fashion), after a facial recognition system flagged him as Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Gordon.

“Hilarious! I’m walking through Moscow Station in St. Petersburg and I feel someone running up behind me. I think, oh, they recognized me — want an autograph or a photo. I turn around. Police run up and immediately detain me. The facial recognition system identified me as a terrorist journalist… Dmytro Gordon,” Galyanskikh wrote on his Telegram channel.

One of the officers even felt his stubble and hair to check for a disguise, he said. He was eventually released and made his train.

The press service of the Internal Affairs Ministry’s transport directorate for the Northwestern Federal District told the Russian news outlet Podem that it was the first time the system had produced an incorrect result. “It’s never happened before. Nothing terrible occurred. The man was simply checked and let go. The musician just looks very similar,” said press service head Elena Shelikhova.

Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Gordon runs a YouTube channel with nearly 3.6 million subscribers, where he publishes news and interviews — in Russian — including with figures from the Russian opposition. In July 2022, Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry placed Gordon on a wanted list. In July 2024, a court sentenced him in absentia to 14 years in prison on charges of publicly justifying terrorism, inciting aggressive war, and spreading “fake” information about the Russian military.