Russian celebrity who hosted ‘almost naked’ party fined in court over Instagram posts

Photos from the party circulated widely on social media

TV presenter and actress Anastasia Ivleeva, center, performs during the VK Festival in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 15 2023 (AP)

A Russian TV presenter and actress, who gained notoriety for hosting an ‘almost naked’ party, has been issued a fine in court.

Anastasia Ivleeva sparked an explosion of indignation in Putin’s Russia country when she hosted a party in December encouraging guests to wear almost nothing.

A well-known rapper showed up wearing only socks wrapped around his genitals and feet. Photos from the party circulated widely on social media. Conservative legislators, bloggers and others then unleashed a storm of criticism, contending the images were unseemly, even unpatriotic, for a country embroiled in war.

Now a court in Moscow court on Thursday imposed a 50,000-ruble ($560) fine, saying her social media posts calling for peace discredited the military.

Ivleeva did not appear in court for the non-criminal case, in which she was fined for two social media posts in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that called for peace and negotiations. The court found her guilty of violating a law penalizing remarks discrediting the military, although the law was passed several days after the posts.

One of the posts on Instagram, which is blocked in Russia but often accessed by VPN, showed a black square and the words in Russian “No to war.”

The other showed a sketch of a dove and called on authorities to “reach those compromises that would stop the killing of people.”

Soon after the invasion launched on February 24, 2022, Russia cracked down on any perceived criticism of what it calls a “special military operation.” In the stiffest punishment so far, prominent opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a speech in the United States denouncing the war.

Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Memorial, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for criticism of the war.

Orlov separately has been designated a “foreign agent” and was to appeal that ruling in a Thursday court hearing by videolink, but the hearing was held in a courtroom without that capability, the Mediazona news site reported.

Ivleeva became the focus of a scandal after hosting a bash at a Moscow nightclub whose invitations stated the dress code as “almost naked.”

People attend an ‘almost naked’ party organized by Russian blogger Anastasia (Nastya) Ivleeva at Mutabor nightclub in Moscow (via REUTERS)

The denunciation of the party also reflected the rise of fiercely conservative sentiment in Russia amid President Vladimir Putin’s accusations against the West for trying to undermine “traditional values” and the nationalism intensified by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The rapper, who uses the stage name Vacio, was sentenced to a total of 25 days in jail for disorderly conduct and fined 200,000 rubles ($22,000) for allegedly spreading “LGBTQ propaganda” in a video.