A Moscow court on Thursday imposed a 50,000-rouble (€505) fine on a TV presenter and actress who gained notoriety for hosting an “almost naked” party, saying her social media posts calling for peace discredited the military.
Anastasia Ivleeva sparked an explosion of public indignation in the increasingly traditionalist country last December when she hosted a party encouraging guests to wear almost nothing.
Ivleeva did not appear in court on Thursday 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 penalising remarks discrediting the military – even though 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 “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 started on February 24, 2022, Russian authorities cracked down on any perceived criticism of what the Kremlin and state media have long referred to as a “special military operation”.
Ivleeva became the focus of a scandal after hosting a bash at a Moscow nightclub whose invitations stated the dress code as “almost naked”.
Photos from the party circulated widely on social media, raising outrage from conservative legislators, bloggers and others who contended the images were unseemly, even unpatriotic, for a country embroiled in war.
The denunciation of the party reflected the rise of fiercely culturally conservative sentiment in Russia, amid nationalism intensified by the country’s war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long accused the West of supposedly trying to undermine “traditional values”.
One of the more famous guests was a well-known rapper, Vacio, who showed up wearing only socks wrapped around his genitals and feet.
He was arrested and sentenced to a total of 25 days in jail for disorderly conduct and fined 200,000 rubles (€2,022) for allegedly spreading “LGBTQ propaganda” in a video.
A lawsuit against Ivleeva alleging moral damages and demanding €10.3 million in compensation be paid into a fund supporting soldiers fighting in Ukraine was thrown out of court in January on jurisdictional grounds.
