A rapper who attended a celebrity party in Moscow wearing only a sock over his penis was sentenced to 15 days in prison, while other attendees at last week's bash, including some of Russia's best-known artists, witnessed their sponsors wearing their Contracts with them broke amid reports that the country's president, Vladimir Putin, had expressed his displeasure with these events.
The convicted rapper Nikolai Vasiliev, known as Vacio, also has to pay a fine of around 2,000 euros for advertising “non-traditional sexual relationships”. Other celebrities present at the party had their concerts and lucrative appearances on state television canceled. Several sponsors have terminated their contracts and one of the participants has been removed from the cast of a film.
This unusually quick and forceful response by the Russian authorities comes in the midst of the war against Ukraine and at a time when the authorities are promoting an increasingly conservative social agenda. A video is circulating on the Internet in which Putin's spokesman listens to the explanations of one of the stars of the party.
Baza, a media outlet known for its contacts with the security services, has claimed that Russian troops fighting in Ukraine were the first to complain after seeing the images and after party photos reached Putin's eyes .
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov asked for forgiveness from journalists on Wednesday for not speaking publicly about the growing scandal, saying: “Let you and me be the only ones in the country who do not discuss this issue.”
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the event had “tarnished” the participants but that they now had the opportunity to work on themselves, according to the Ura.ru news agency.
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The violent reaction from authorities, pro-Kremlin lawmakers, bloggers, state media and Orthodox church groups has dominated headlines in recent days. This news has even eclipsed those related to inflation and the rise in prices of staple foods such as eggs.
Apologies to participants
The party, which took place on the 21st at the Mutabor nightclub in Moscow and where participants could go “almost naked,” was organized by blogger Anastasia Nastya Ivleeva. It was attended by well-known singers who had regularly appeared on state television entertainment programs for years and appeared naked to varying degrees. Ivleeva herself, one of Russia's most famous bloggers, wore jewelry worth the equivalent of almost 230,000 euros – at a time when many citizens cannot make ends meet.
The blogger has since released two public videos apologizing for the incident. In the second part, published on Wednesday, he said that he regretted his actions and that he deserved everything that happened to him, but that he hoped he would be given “a second chance.”
Since then, Russia's largest mobile operator MTS has broken its advertising contract with him, the Finance Ministry has opened an investigation against him that could lead to five years in prison, and a Moscow court has accepted a lawsuit from a group of individuals seeking a payment of almost 10 million Demanding euros for causing “moral suffering”. If the lawsuit is successful, the money will flow into a sovereign wealth fund that supports Ukrainian war veterans.
“We celebrate these types of events at a time when our boys are dying in the special military operation [la denominación oficial rusa para la guerra de Ucrania] “It is cynical that many children are losing their parents,” said Yekaterina Mizulina, director of the Russian League for Safe Internet, an organization founded with the support of authorities. “Our soldiers at the front are definitely not fighting for this,” Mizulina concluded.
Many of the party's famous members have released apology videos, including journalist Ksenia Sobchak, whose late father Anatoly was a friend and even boss of Putin.
social conservatism
The scandal comes at a time when Putin, who is expected to easily win another term in elections scheduled for March, has tightened his social conservatism and is pushing families to have eight or more children, and after The Supreme Court of Russia has ruled that LGBTI activists must be referred to as “extremists”.
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