Russian police overnight raided a Moscow venue after it hosted a controversial "Almost Naked' party, attended by numerous high-profile guests and celebrities, including supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The police raid on the Mutabor night club came after outraged Russians reported the event to authorities, accusing participants of infringing on the country's LGBTQ+ "propaganda" laws and not adhering to "traditional values" espoused by Putin and his government.
The scandal drew wide condemnation from Russia's so-called Z-patriot camp and is seen as an embarrassment for Putin's regime, whose embrace of "traditional values" became a key counterpoint to what it perceives as the decadent and "woke" ideology of the West.
The event—organized by Russian TV presenter and blogger Nastya Ivleeva— attracted a number of Russian celebrities including pop star Philipp Kirkorov, singer Lolita Milyavskaya and former presidential candidate Kseniya Sobchak.
The participation of Sobchak, whose father Anatoly Sobchak, was a mentor to Putin, attracted particular attention because of her political history, high profile and persistent rumors that she is the goddaughter of the Russian president.
Russian outlets that published accounts of the event claimed men were kissing on the dance floor and nude images were projected. A second part of the party, dubbed "Ivleeva's Rainbow," was also announced for Friday.
But instead of the much-anticipated follow-up the Moscow venue was raided by law enforcement officers, who promptly kicked out the guests and stopped others from entering the premises while they investigated, according to Russian telegram channels and news outlets.
"The Siloviki [Russian law enforcment] burst into the Mutabor night club following the 'nude' party," Russia news channel SHOT reported on Telegram on Friday.
According to SHOT, the club could be in "serious trouble" as police officers inspected CCTV footage of the event, likely to establish if it showed "LGBTQ+ propaganda," which is banned under Russian laws.
Another outlet, Baza, reported that the second part of the event was eventually allowed to go ahead, but with a significantly more conservative dress code, while Ivleeva herself only attended briefly towards the end of the party.
The raid came after a number of prominent conservatives in Russian media and politics, including Maria Butina, expressed outrage about the party and called for an investigation.
Photos shared by SHOT appeared to show police vans parked outside the Moscow venue.
Butina, a member of Russia's parliament who was jailed in the United States for over a year after admitting to conspiring to act as a foreign agent, has since become a poweful voice in Russian politics, often railing against the perceived "woke" West.
On her VK page, Butina said she had asked Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Culture to investigate if the party complied with Russia's LGBTQ+ propaganda laws, which effectively outlaw any public display of same-sex relationships or sexual acts.
Others raged on social media as photos from the event surfaced online on Thursday.
"Hosting such events at a time when our boys are dying in Ukraine and kids are losing their fathers is cynical,' Astra, another Telegram news outlet, wrote, citing Russian Z-bloggers.
"There is a war going on in the country, but these beasts, scum are organizing all this, these brutes who don't care what's going on," wrote one of the staunchest Putin loyalists, TV host Vladimir Solovyov, in a Telegram post.
Dmitry Gusev, a Russian MP for the Spravedlivaya Rossiya opposition party, called for event attendees to be dropped from Russian state TV programs and shows, stating that their behavior was "inappropriate" especially as Putin recently pronounced 2024 "the year of the family."
Representatives of radical traditionalist groups like "Sorok Sorokov," "Call of the People" and others also demanded a police response, according to Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian news outlet.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday via email for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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