the persecution of guests of the “naked party” was organized by the Kremlin

The persecution of Russian show business stars who participated in the “almost naked” party of TV presenter and blogger Nastya Ivleeva began on the orders of Vladimir Putin’s administration. Sources in the government, the State Duma and the administration of the President of Russia told The Moscow Times about this publication.

The interlocutors of the publication claim that, in this way, in the Kremlin, the attention of citizens and the accumulated negativity in society is switched to secular characters. “In the direction of the burning stars,” an official of the Russian government told journalists on the condition of anonymity.

“Such a large-scale campaign to discredit these stars is already an internal policy. Without Putin’s approval and without a team from the curator of domestic policy Sergey Kiriyenko and the curator of TV and state media Alexei Gromov, it is simply impossible. The security forces and the FSB lobbied for this topic,” he told the publication. another Russian official close to Putin’s campaign headquarters.

Political scientist Abbas Gallyamov believes that the Kremlin decided to pick up a scandal with an “almost naked” party in order to squeeze the story of journalist Ekaterina Duntsova off the agenda. She announced her intention to run for president and received the support of a number of Russian oppositionists. However, the Central Electoral Commission refused it.

A source of The Moscow Times, close to Putin’s headquarters, agreed with this opinion. According to him, Duntsova’s public activity caused irritation in the Kremlin. Among the other negative events for the authorities, he mentioned the attack on the Russian warship in Feodosia, as well as the rise in prices for chicken eggs and other products.

Officially, the Kremlin does not comment on the “almost naked” party. “Let us remain the only ones in the country who do not discuss this topic,” the press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov told journalists at a briefing.

• The party at the Moscow club “Mutabor”, held on December 20, was devoted to the opening of an exhibition of unpublished photos for Playboy magazine, Russian media reports. A dress code with a minimum of clothing was recommended for guests. Many stars came in semi-transparent outfits or semi-nude. Videos from the party got on the Internet and caused a scandal in the Russian blogosphere, and then an official condemnation.
• Many “patriotic” bloggers compared the participants of the party to traitors for unbridled fun at a time when Russian soldiers are dying in Ukraine, and demanded that they be subject to the most severe repression.
• One of the guests of the party – rapper Vacio – was arrested for 15 days on charges of petty hooliganism and fined 200,000 rubles for promoting non-traditional sexual relations.

• The stars of show business, who were among the guests, later published their apologies. Singer Philip Kirkorov said on December 26 that “I looked in for five minutes, realized that I had entered the wrong door, and left.” His colleague, Dima Bylan, also addressed the worshipers, saying that he was well dressed and did not stay at the party for a long time. The organizer of the party, Anastasia Ivleeva, published several videos in which she asked for forgiveness from her audience and the Russian celebrities who attended the party.
• After the party, cooperation with Ivleeva was terminated by the bank “Tinkoff” and the operator MTS. It was reported that the Federal Tax Service started an investigation against Ivleeva, and Russian TV channels received stop letters with the names of celebrities who participated in the party. Kirkorov, Lolita, Bylan began to be cut from New Year’s TV shows.