A Russian Web host has deleted a St. Petersburg artist’s personal website, saying it violated a law protecting children from inappropriate content. According to a ruling by a local court, photographer Alexander Mavrin’s website, mavrinstudios.com, contained images of persons “becoming intoxicated on drugs, tobacco, and alcohol,” and propagated so-called “non-traditional sexual orientations.”
Mavrin says he has repeatedly explained his photography to law enforcement agencies. Police first accused him of creating and disseminating pornographic materials, and later decided to hold him accountable for promoting non-traditional sexual orientations, the photographer says. Mavrin also says police spoke to him about his supposed collaboration with “enemies of the state,” which he assumes relates to his past work photographing opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
The press secretary for Roskomnadzor, Russia's government-run media watchdog, told TJournal that a St. Petersburg court ruled on November 6, 2014, to ban Mavrin’s website and his photo-studio’s social media page on VKontakte. (The latter is still online, at the time of this writing.)
“It’s strange that I’m the only one targeted by such actions and that it’s with such zeal. A woman’s hands resting on another woman’s behind, and other images like this, are in no way a call to people to change their sexual orientation. Once, in another statement by police, they accused me of collaborating with what they called “enemies of the state.” The list included [Alexey] Navalny, probably because I once photographed him.”
Several of the photos published on Mavrin’s website included images of nude or semi-nude women. Some of the photographs show several women at a time.