Banning rappers is a bad idea, and the state should fight drug culture rather than youth culture, Vladimir Putin has said, weighing in on the scandal over some Russian rap gigs, canceled for their links to narcotics and violence.

The Russian president on Saturday warned against attempts to ban and prosecute rappers, describing such measures as "the least effective, the worst ones anyone could come up with."

"The effect of them would be opposite to the desired one," Putin said.

Musicians have every right to use obscenities for self-expression and must be allowed to swear from stage if their shows have proper age restrictions, the deputy head of the Russian Parliament's information committee said.

"People go to concerts, already knowing what to expect there. They're not going blindly. This is art. He (the artist) sees thing this way," Andrey Svintsov from nationalist Liberal Democratic Party said about the use of foul language by some musicians.

"If you do not like it then just don't go there. That's it," he added.

Despite rap being the most commercially viable youth musical genre in the country, its proponents frequently face last-minute gig cancellations while touring outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, often on the pretext of advertising drug use, obscene language or the alleged threat of violence. Things came to a head last month after provocative performer Husky was stopped from taking to the stage in Krasnodar, then arrested for 12 days when he performed an impromptu gig on the boot of a car outside the venue. Both Moscow officials and civil rights organizations protested, and the rapper was released, but the issue begs for a resolution.

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There were tangents, discussions of the misuse of hate speech legislation, poems and skits read by the participants without a backing track, but mostly all the talking heads delivered their pieces, with little spontaneous engagement between the participants.

Finally, as he rubbed his face red with growing frustration Zhigan, most notorious for his car theft and robbery convictions for which he served time, snapped.

"We are having a conversation about nothing here," he said, before quickly advertising the release of his upcoming film, and making a dramatic exit. "We can spend another 20 years talking about this, bro," he said to Ptaha, tapping him on the shoulder

Two hours in, and the meeting wrapped up, still no concrete proposals on the table. But while the cringe factor was high, and legislative changes unlikely, the mere fact that the high-profile meeting took place sends a signal (particularly to regional officials) that the government cares, and that rappers won't be made into pariahs on whom social ills are blamed. And if the price to pay for progress is sitting three feet from a senior policeman after writing odes to multiple ways to break the law, then this could be a deal worth striking even for the true non-conformists.

The 27-year-old defended his thoughts on Saturday, asking why the same people who have been calling to "evacuate the settlers and establish a Palestinian state free of Jews" were angered by his words.

Many on social media were indeed unimpressed with the younger Netanyahu's Facebook posts, with one person instead stating that he should be the one to leave Israel.

Ben White, author of the book Cracks in the Wall: Beyond Apartheid in Palestine/Israel, questioned who "radicalized" the prime minister's son.

And another person referred to him as the "third Trump brother."

Yair Netanyahu is no stranger to the spotlight, or to controversy. In May, he came under fire for posting "F*** Turkey" on Instagram amid a diplomatic row between Israel and Ankara.

In January, recordings were released which included Netanyahu, then 25, and his friends talking about spending thousands of shekels for private dances from strippers. He also appeared to offer his friends sexual favors from a woman he was in an intimate relationship with in exchange for money. Some Israeli media outlets have implied that those comments were made in jest while inebriated.

The same tapes, recorded by Netanyahu's then-driver, also revealed Netanyahu asking his friend to "spot him" some money because the elder Netanyahu had secured an "awesome" gas deal that would benefit the friend's father.

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