A party at an exclusive Moscow club, mostly famous guests and a chance to show off palmetto. Nothing had to go wrong and take away the joy of those attending on New Year’s Eve. But the initial idea of ??the organizer, the influencer and television presenter Anastasia Ivleeva, has caused scandal and reaction among the conservative Russian bureaucracy, encouraged by wartime nationalist patriotism.

Ivleeva told her guests that they had to attend “almost naked.” They accepted artists who have stayed in Russia after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his military campaign against Ukraine in February 2022. Many behaved like a good guest and paid attention to the curious dress code, but that has caused them not a few problems in the last week.

Shortly after the celebration began, on December 21, on social networks the attendees themselves spread their photographs wearing semi-transparent dresses and suits. One of them, the rapper Vacio (pseudonym of Nikolai Vasílyev) arrived wearing only a sock that covered his genitals.

The reaction was immediate. “There is a war in the country, but these beasts and scum are organizing all this, these brutes who do not care about what is happening,” Vladimir Solovyov, the first propagandist of Russian television, said on Telegram. Several conservative and anti-liberal deputies, as well as social movements, addressed the Prosecutor’s Office asking for an investigation into LGBT propaganda.

The Russian authorities have presented themselves in recent decades as a bulwark of traditional values ??against the West. Last year Russia banned propaganda “of non-traditional relationships, pedophilia and sex change” among the entire population, toughening the 2013 law, and last month the Supreme Court declared the “international social movement” “extremist”. LGBT.”

Many stars present have had concerts cancelled. Singer Lolita Miliávskaya told RBK newspaper that she is being “excluded from television shows.” The withdrawal of advertising will also cause them serious financial damage. Faced with these threats, they have recorded apology videos this week, in some cases defending their “patriotism.”

Ivleeva has released two recordings. She said she was aware of the “very difficult moment” that Russia is experiencing and asked for a “second chance.”

The king of pop Filipp Kirkorov acknowledged having “made a mistake,” but said he did not know “the nature of the events” that occurred at the party and that he left there “in five minutes.” According to him, “in these difficult times, heroic moments, a people’s artist behaves irresponsibly if he participates in any event.” He added that he is an artist and a patriot. “The last thing I would like is for carelessness on my part to be the cause of the restriction of my creativity in Russia,” he stressed.

Dima Bilan, the only Russian winner of Eurovision, has also claimed to have left after a few minutes. Despite knowing the dress code, she said she arrived at the party wearing a turtleneck, a cape and pants, and received an invitation to an art exhibition.

Journalist Ksenia Sobchak, daughter of former St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, mentor and promoter of Putin’s political career, also apologized. But in her video she pointed out that “where and when adults walk around with their butts naked is a personal matter.” She apologized to anyone who may have felt hurt and said that “I love my country.”

For now, justice has caught up with one of the guests. The rapper Vacio was punished this Wednesday with 15 days in jail and a fine of 200,000 rubles (2,000 euros) for minor vandalism and homosexual propaganda. Vasílyev explained that his intention was to “surprise” the audience by copying an image of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the sock that covered his penis while playing the cover of their 1987 album.

The party organizer can follow a similar path. The Russian Treasury has begun to investigate Ivleeva’s accounts. Inspectors believe that between 2020 and 2022 she evaded taxes worth 130 million rubles (€1.3 million). According to the Russian press, this could potentially mean five years in prison.