Portal Singer Philipp Kirkorov and TV presenter Nastya Ivleeva are among the celebrities who appeared to apologize for appearing almost naked at a private party
In late 2023, some of Russia's top celebrities released a series of videos apologizing for appearing nearly naked at a private party.
In the current war climate in Ukraine, these people were condemned as unpatriotic and their videos were full of remorse.
They also joined a fastspreading culture of apology videos that have become increasingly relevant since the largescale hack nearly two years ago.
Many of these videos are released by the police and show people who have come under far greater pressure than those in power in the Russian pop scene.
Some of the forced apologies came after alleged violations of the Kremlin's official ideology and not for anything else.
According to Russian human rights lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, these videos have a dual purpose.
He humiliates critics of the war with Ukraine and “intimidates those who do not support the war but have not yet had the courage to say so publicly,” he told the website Kavkaz Realii.
BBC This man apologized for snowboarding down a slope in a Boratstyle 'mankini'.
This trend first gained traction in 2015, when apology videos appeared on social media or on local state television in the Russian republic of Chechnya in the North Caucasus.
Most of the videos showed people apologizing for their criticism of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
One of them showed a man apologizing for being gay. Another, a man without pants, who criticized the Chechen leader for singing a song called “President Putin,” is my best friend.
The videos quickly spread to other parts of the North Caucasus and some were released by police.
In an article by the Interior Ministry of the Republic of KarachayKirkassia, a man apologized for snowboarding on a mountainside while wearing only swimming trunks similar to those worn by the character Borat.
More recently, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several videos have emerged showing critics of what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation.”
Some were posted on official police social media accounts. Many others were published by prowar groups or state media, but also appear to have been involved by police.
They were filmed in typical empty police station rooms and use language typical of police reports.
In June 2023, a singer named Sharlot burned his passport, saying he did not want to be a citizen of a “criminal Russia” and move to Kyiv as a gesture of support for the Ukrainian people.
He was arrested and soon appeared in a video apologizing for “not understanding what was happening.”
BBC Sharlot released a video of him burning his passport, but later apologized and said he would not do it again
In another example, the Interior Ministry of Chuvashia, a region about 600 km east of Moscow, released a video of a man apologizing for smearing war graffiti. He painted a red flag and turned it into the flag of the Russian opposition.
Other videos released by Russian police show men showing remorse for crimes such as attempting to tear down a monument in the shape of the letter Z, which became a proRussian symbol during the war in Ukraine, and setting fire to the door of a pro Russian building. War blogger.
There have been allegations that such apology videos are often recorded under duress.
For example, a blogger named Nekoglay said police in Moscow forced him to appear on camera after stripping him naked, beating him and attempting to rape him with a plastic bottle.
The apology video, published by the official Ria Novosti news agency, was released after he recorded a video in which he parodied a Russian soldier defending himself against a Ukrainian drone strike.
Apology videos are also being used to shame critics of the war in Russianoccupied parts of Ukraine.
Twothirds of the apology videos that Russian human rights website OVDInfo monitored over a period of nearly 16 months after the invasion began actually came from the occupied Crimea region.
Russian social anthropologist Aleksandra Arkhipova describes the videos as “rituals of guilt and shame” that amount to extrajudicial punishment.
“It violates inner freedom. This has become the rule. It's very bad. If someone does something wrong, the first thing they should do is record an apology video,” she told the BBC.
BBC A man has been forced to apologize for defacing war graffiti in Chuvashia
In Crimea, a woman was filmed apologizing for sharing Ukrainian songs on her social media accounts and another for posting photos of various objects in the colors blue and yellow, just like them Ukrainian flag, had posted.
A puppet theater actress from occupied Donetsk was recorded apologizing for sharing Ukrainian songs on TikTok. She later said she was pressured into doing it by police.
“Either you record this video or … you go to jail and your child goes to an orphanage,” she said, quoting a police officer.
ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPAEFE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK Apology videos became increasingly common in Russia during the war with Ukraine
Arkhipova claims the videos are the product of a president who treats Russians like an authoritarian father.
“Everyone else is like children who have no legal authority of their own. Your father is always right. So if they do something wrong, they have to apologize to their father.”
She also came under pressure from Russian authorities, who labeled her a “foreign agent.”