Russian President Vladimir Putin has a message for Moscow’s cultural elite: Get your priorities straight.
In his first public reaction to a controversial “almost naked” party in December that was attended by some of Russia’s top celebrities in minimal clothing, the Russian president drew a parallel with the soldiers sent to fight the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
“We need to pay attention to the guys who are returning from the special military operation,” Putin said on Tuesday, using the Kremlin’s euphemism for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Russian state-owned newswire TASS.
“People who decide to go there come back and have their life priorities lined up differently,” the Russian president said. “One would no longer jump [around] without pants at some event.”
The party has triggered a major crackdown by the Kremlin on the country’s showbiz elite, and has led to a resurgence in anti-LGBTQ+ speech in the country.
One of the partygoers, the rapper Nikolai Vasilyev (stage name Vacío), who attended the party wearing only a sock covering his genitals, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for petty hooliganism and fined 200,000 rubles (about €2,000) for “LGBT propaganda.” Other attendees were pressured to issue public apologies, in a cultural purge reminiscent of Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Vacío also received a summons to enlist in the Russian military.
Several prominent pro-Putin figures have suggested ways the party’s attendees can make amends. Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya and a longtime Putin ally, invited the revelers to volunteer for front-line duty.
Until Tuesday, Putin himself had not publicly commented on the party. According to Russian independent investigative outlet Agentsvо, the purge began after the Russian president was shown footage of partygoers faking oral sex on Vacío, the Russian rapper.
Sergey Goryashko contributed reporting.