Russia’s federal censor claims to find ‘LGBT propaganda’ in photos from celebrity-filled ‘almost naked’ party
Russia's federal censor, Roskomnadzor, has detected “signs of LGBT propaganda” in some of the photos and videos taken at a celebrity-filled “almost naked” party earlier this week, lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein reported on Friday. Censorship officials confirmed to state media that the material in question is already blocked, though Meduza was unable to find links to photos or videos from the party on the list of blocked sites maintained by the digital rights group Roskomsvoboda.
After the notorious party, pro-government activists filed complaints against its organizers and attendees to the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office, among other federal agencies. They were joined by lawmaker Maria Butina, who submitted her complaints on official State Duma letterhead. The agencies have yet to respond to the denunciations.
On Thursday, a Moscow court ordered the arrest of one of the “almost naked” party’s most high-profile attendees: a rapper named Vacio (Nikolai Vasiliev) who wore nothing but shoes on his feet and a sock on his penis. According to the Telegram channel Baza, Vacio was transported to court on Friday morning. The court’s press service reported that the rapper had disturbed the peace, used profanities, and spread materials online that were aimed at promoting “non-traditional sexual relations.” He was sentenced to 15 days in jail for disorderly conduct and fined 200,000 rubles ($2,171) for “gay propaganda.”
After Vacio’s arrest, a video surfaced that shows him apologizing for attending the party. In the clip, which was presumably taken in a police station, the rapper says that he “in no way supports LGBT and didn’t mean to promote anything.” The state news agency RIA Novosti published two versions of the apology video; in the second one, Vacio also apologizes for “offending the feelings of so many people in such a tough time for our country.”
Russian law enforcement also arrested two other men who attended the party and who were reportedly filmed kissing, according to the Telegram channel Shot. The authorities reportedly plan to charge the two attendees with misdemeanors, though this information has not been confirmed by other sources.
Media figure Ksenia Sobchak, who was also at the party, issued a statement responding to conservative activists who took issue with the risque party being held while Russia is at war. In a Telegram post, Sobchak said that “the world isn’t fair” and that “no mourning can last forever.” “You may not like to look at all this, but where and when adults decide to walk around with their bare asses out is their personal business,” she added. Singer Lolita Milyavskaya, another attendee, said that the “funniest part” of the whole affair came only after the event, when the backlash erupted. Meanwhile, the party’s main organizer, blogger and TV presenter Nastya Ivleeva, deleted a social media comment in which she said she “loves” the backlash her parties provoke.
On the party’s second day, police showed up at Mutabor, the club where it was held. While tickets for the first day of the event cost up to a million rubles ($10,855), the cost of entry on the second day started at 1,500 rubles ($16.28). The party reportedly continued after the officers left, and videos from the event’s second day later appeared on Nastya Ivleeva’s Instagram page.