No shoes, no shirt, no service Russian celebrities face event cancelations and legal action after attending ‘almost naked’ party
It’s been nearly one week since the now-infamous “almost naked” party took place in Moscow, hosted by blogger and TV presenter Nastya Ivleeva. The event, which was held on December 20, sparked the ire of the Russian authorities after photos and videos showing the scantily-clad celebrities spread across social media. Now, the event’s host and several attendees have been forced to apologize for partaking in the party during wartime, especially given that Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, says they found “signs of LGBT propaganda.” Meduza summarizes the fallout from the notorious event, including canceled brand deals, New Year’s shows, and concerts — and even a class-action lawsuit.
Nastya Ivleeva, the party’s organizer, initially posted that she “loves” getting hate for hosting risque events. She soon deleted that post and uploaded an apology video. In the video, published on December 24, she said the event was intended to serve as the launch of a photo project she curated as Playboy magazine’s editor-in-chief two years ago (this never came about due to Playboy’s exit from Russia). She promised that she would give all the profits from the event to charity. BBC News Russian noted that Ivleeva’s antiwar posts on Instagram, which she had posted shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, had been taken down.
After the event, a Moscow court accepted a class-action lawsuit against Ivleeva, which was signed by 22 people. The plaintiffs reportedly demand that Ivleeva give one billion rubles (around $11 million) to the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, which donates money to participants in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The lawsuit also seeks to ban Ivleeva from “hosting cultural and mass events in Russia until the court decision enters into legal force.” According to the Telegram channel Shot, the court hearing will take place between late January and early March.
Russian bank Tinkoff and mobile operator MTS have announced they would no longer work with Ivleeva. Tinkoff said Ivleeva would not participate in the bank’s commercials, while MTS removed Ivleeva from its list of ambassadors and said they may exclude her from all their advertising.
It wasn’t just the party’s host who was caught in the aftermath, but also its attendees. Russian singer Lolita Milyavskaya said that her concerts have been canceled and she has been “taken off the air,” according to an interview with news outlet RBC.
Russian singer Philipp Kirkorov has reportedly already been cut from his New Year’s show. He posted an apology video on Russian social media network VKontakte, in which he said:
I’m an artist of my country and my country alone. I’m a patriot of my country and my country alone. I’ve never tried to play both sides, I’ve never left or betrayed anything. I love only my viewers and listeners. I realize the mistake I made.
Russian singer Dima Bilan also apologized, saying that “I understand perfectly well our people’s outrage, and even more so of our guys who are protecting us on the front lines.”
Russian socialite and media personality Ksenia Sobchak recorded her apology soon after Kirkorov and Bilan. Sobchak said that she thought publicly posting photos from the party was “inappropriate” because there was “a lot of tastelessness.” But she also pushed back on “turning participants of the nonsense into criminals”:
I can speak for myself: I certainly didn’t mean to offend or insult anyone. If someone was offended by my appearance, I apologize for that. I love my country, I’m a journalist who works in Russia. I don’t want to cause feelings of hatred toward me and other artists because of such a stupid accident.
Translation by Sasha Slobodov