Russian activists and lawmakers have demanded the law enforcement agencies investigate a scandalous event attended by many celebrities
A popular Russian blogger and TV personality, Anastasiya Ivleeva, has landed in hot water over a party she organized in one of the elite Moscow clubs. The event with an “almost naked” dress code that took place on Wednesday night drew condemnation from civil society, lawmakers and public figures alike.
The critics also filed several complaints with the Russian law enforcement agencies, accusing the organizers of LGBT propaganda, drug use and extremism.
The party at the ‘Mutabor’ club was attended by a number of Russian celebrities, ranging from prominent pop singers such as Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan and five-time World Music Awards ‘Best Selling Russian Artist’ title winner Philipp Kirkorov, to the former presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak.
Photos and videos from the event have been widely circulating on social media. The images and clips showed both celebrities and regular partygoers posing almost naked or in see-through dresses. A ticket to the event reportedly cost around 1 million rubles ($10,767).
The images were widely condemned by various Russian public figures and even Ivleeva’s own fans, who criticized her on social media.
State Duma MP Maria Butina filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry, the media watchdog Roskomnadzor, and the Culture Ministry over the event, calling on the authorities to “provide a legal assessment” of the actions of the party organizers and its participants.
Butina specifically questioned the party’s compliance with the Russian LGBT ban, as well as the national policy of protecting traditional and family values.
Another MP, Dmitry Gusev, made an appeal to the biggest Russian media broadcasters, calling on them to boycott all the party participants and either drop them from their programs or replace them with other celebrities.
Yekateria Mizulina, the head of the ‘Safe Internet League’, a nonprofit promoting “media literacy,” made a similar appeal.
“Such people should face a boycott at the state level,” Mizulina said in a Telegram post, adding that such events harm the national policy protecting traditional values. She also branded the party “cynical,” adding that photos and videos from it were “demonstratively made public.”
Several other civic organizations went as far as to call the event “nauseating” and outright “Satanic.” These groups also filed complaints with the Interior Ministry and the Russian Investigative Committee.
A prominent Russian TV host and media personality, Vladimir Solovyev, slammed the party by calling its organizers and participants “morally deaf.” Such people “understand nothing” about their own nation, he said, adding that staging such events was absolutely inappropriate when Russia was engaged in a military conflict and “our guys were fighting on the frontlines.”
The Russian authorities have not officially commented on the situation. According to the media outlet Life News, Moscow police raided the club that hosted the event on Thursday night. Details of the raid were not available as of yet.