Moscow's Naked Party Reveals So Much More Than Body Parts
Three years ago, this party would have been an Instagram sensation, but it now confirms how far-gone Russia is
The “naked party,” which took place late last year in Moscow, is in many ways a turning point for Russia. The country’s “cultural elite” gathered at a party hosted by the woman in the photo above, Nastya Ivleeva, and the dress code was: Come as naked or almost naked.
Ivleeva is a television presenter and blogger whose claim to fame, as with many famous people between 20 and 40, is being as superfluous as possible and reporting on it endlessly. Hundreds of thousands follow Ivleeva, living vicariously through her self-obsessed, “pretty life.” The man in the picture with her is regarded as the “pop music king of Russia,” Philip Kirkurov. He is as openly pro-Putin as he is a closeted gay man, although millions of his female fans believe he is the “real lady’s man.”
As it turned out, the party was filled with men and women like Kirkurov. Humans expressing themselves in the ways that they feel most natural; people expressing themselves in ways as to let the world know that they are sexually free. I am not defending this party. I was so unimpressed by this gathering of scantily-clad people because, having met many of them over my three decades in Russia, I know that they are really just a sad bunch of posers. They are pretty much like the “cultural elite” in any country: ego-maniacs who, now, in the age of Instagram, feel the need to report every minute of every day. It’s a non-story if I ever saw one.
My wife kept suggesting that I write something about the party’s hypocrisy. The country’s elite, who make great shows of support for the “Russia’s heroes” genociding Ukrainians, are so upset by the war that they gather at what some Russians have labeled an “orgy” in the center of Moscow at a nightclub. They claim support for Putin and his Christian fascism but then go out in public with only socks on their junk — some Russian rapper wore a sock on his Jimmy-Johnson and nothing else. The craziest thing is that tickets for the party cost $10,000.
The authorities went berserk when the photos and videos from the party started hitting social media accounts.
As Internet users gawked and gossiped, there was immediate outrage from conservative activists and pundits, several of whom began lobbying for a police response. Representatives of radical traditionalist groups like “Sorok Sorokov,” “Call of the People,” and the “Federal Project for Security and Anti-Corruption” (FPBK) soon appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office and other law-enforcement agencies, calling the “Almost Naked” party an “immoral” celebration of the “dark arts” and asking the authorities to investigate its organizers for propagating drug culture and “the gay lifestyle.”
Some have called for administrative charges, while others want a full-on criminal investigation. One of the recurring complaints is that Ivleeva’s festivities come at a time when Russia is busy invading Ukraine, ostensibly in defense of “traditional values” against the onslaught of Western decadence and progressivism (Russian Pop Stars).
The hypocrisy is not as head-spinning as it may seem, though, because, as this party demonstrates, few Russians really align themselves with Putin’s calls for living chaste, Christian lives free of sin. During my 30 years in Russia, I will say without going into detail that the sexual debauchery that most people engaged in, especially ex-pats who came over in the 1990s, is like nothing that happened in other countries during this time.
Russians are not stopped by any preconceived notions of God when it comes to sex and sexual relations. All of the nonsense about Western values poisoning their brains is simply hysterical to anyone who has ever spent any time in Russia. I have never been in a country with such easy access to prostitutes. They are everywhere, and it is a no-brainer for many young women to engage in the oldest profession if they need a few extra bucks. I would not be surprised if many of the Orthodox priests going on about family values have their favorite hooker or two on the side. It’s something that Russian men do.
This party, though, could change things.
The Ukrainian pop star
Her name is Anna Asti. She was a mediocre Ukrainian singer living in Kyiv on the day Russia invaded on February 24, 2022. She packed her things and headed for Russia. There, she launched a solo career, and by the time she attended the Almost Naked Party, she was the number-one pop star in Russia. She had become a regular guest at her childhood hero’s house, Philip Kirkurov (pictured above), and her concerts were selling out in hours.
She became so popular that she decided it would benefit her career to become a citizen of Russia. She received her Russian passport last year, and then she took off her clothes and rubbed shoulders with her new country’s viciously cultural elite.
Like many of the event’s other attendees, Asti faced swift and intense backlash: her upcoming concerts were canceled, and the premiere of her upcoming concert film was postponed. In the nearly two years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Asti has refrained from speaking publicly about the war in her birth country. Nonetheless, Russian Orthodox activists have now begun calling for the singer to lose the Russian citizenship she recently obtained, claiming she violated Russia’s “traditional values” by attending the scandalous party (Silence and Success).
The young traitor to her homeland, who so faithfully remained silent while her new country slaughtered her friends, relatives, neighbors, and fellow citizens, has now become a cause for conservative Russians. Asti, the Orthodox (Taliban) activists say that she violated traditional values that I am telling from 30 years of experience — and this Almost Naked Party supports — have never existed in Russia.
Nonetheless, the excesses of this party are going to lead to a more aggressive, unrelenting assault on LGBTQ Russians. More of these offenses against “traditional values” will be put into law, making it easier for the authorities to detain and “lose” anyone they feel threatens their complete and total control over every aspect of Russian life. Offending “traditional values” will become not only a reason to imprison people but even to remove their citizenship; and yet, most Russians will remain silent even though they know that this, too, is extremist, wrong, and not aligned with their views.
Russia becoming like Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by 2026 is no longer such a farfetched notion.