The New York Sun
“Almost Naked” was the dress code on invitations sent to Moscow’s top celebrities in fashion, music, and TV. They responded — dressed only in lingerie and black mesh bodysuits. A famous rapper came naked, but for a small sock. In this year-end bacchanalia at Mutabor nightclub, Moscow’s beautiful people danced into the early morning hours of December 22. Taking endless selfies, they happily promoted themselves on Instagram and Telegram.
At first, revelers ignored spoilsports who noted that, only 500 miles to the south, Russia was waging the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945. Desperate for a battlefield victory before Russia’s mid-March presidential elections, Vladimir Putin ordered his generals to send human waves into Ukraine’s machine guns.
In the second half of December, Ukrainian officials say that Russia lost 1,000 soldiers a day. In the week since the party, Ukrainian figures show that Russia lost one landing ship, five Sukhoi fighter bombers, 99 battle tanks, 176 artillery pieces, 179 armored personnel carriers, and 6,560 soldiers killed or wounded.
Initially, complaints about the party fell on deaf ears among Moscow’s elite. “It was worth it,” Russian blogger Anastasia Ivleeva, who organized the two-day bash, is saying on Telegram. “I love that after every one of my parties people write comments that this is debauchery, some kind of demonism and Satanism, even though it’s just people wearing beautiful costumes.”
“La Dolce Vita” video clips of Moscow’s beautiful people dancing and air kissing the night away went viral across Russia. Outside of the capital, they went over like lead balloons. Baza, a publication close to the security services, reported that troops fighting in Ukraine complained about the videos. A masked man who describes himself as a Russian draftee “living with rats” in a frontline trench in Donetsk region published an angry selfie, cursing the party goers — and “Comrade Putin” and Russia’s defense minister, “Comrade Shoigu.”
“When we are fighting here, when we are rotting in the trenches, they wear 23 million [in jewels] on their butts — and they boast about it,” he shouts. “Is this what we are fighting for?”
Referring to Russia’s tradition of year end company parties, he tells Muscovites: “You’re having corporate parties, relaxing, hanging out.” He ended with a threat — to Moscow’s golden elite and to Russia’s president and defense minister: “You are going to get it.”
Mr. Putin’s problem is that he is a victim of his own success. He designed his war to shield two cities — Moscow and St. Petersburg. To fight the war, his draft boards press-gang his cannon fodder from less politically important regions. They included ethnic minorities, Buddhists, Muslims and 120,000 male convicts.
Determined to leave untouched Russia’s urban middle class, he recently inducted 1,000 female prisoners into Russia’s army. He is using Russia’s oil money to pay for mercenaries from Cuba and Nepal. Substantial military spending and the flight of 1 million to avoid the draft has cut Russia’s unemployment to 3 percent, the lowest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
After the “Almost Naked” party video clips were seen from the frontlines in Ukraine to villages in Siberia, the Kremlin turned harshly on the partygoers, turning them into scapegoats from VIPs. The rapper dressed only in a sock and sneakers, Nikolai Vasilyev, was jailed by a Moscow court for 15 days and fined the equivalent of $2,182 for propaganda of “non-traditional sexual relations.”
Vasilyev’s initial reaction on Telegram was: “Screw it I’ll work out [and] read some books haha peace to all.” Within days, Mr. Vasilyev, known professionally as Vacio, appeared in a video posted by state-run RIA Novosti saying he did not intend to break Russia’s new anti-gay “propaganda” law: “I don’t support the LGBT community in any way. I didn’t intend to promote any propaganda. I condemn supporters of the LGBT movement.”
Similarly, Ms. Ivleeva posted tearful apologies on Wednesday. Dressed in a drab knit sweater and stripped of makeup, the party organizer begged: “I would like to ask you, the people, for a second chance … If the answer is no, then I’m ready for my public execution.” Russia’s tax administration opened an investigation of her finances.
Plus, a Moscow court accepted a class action lawsuit against her, demanding she pay the equivalent $11 million to a charity supporting the invasion of Ukraine. Other party participants have seen their concert contracts canceled, corporate sponsors fall away, and appearances cut out of pre-recorded New Year’s Eve programs scheduled for Sunday night.
Pop star Filipp Kirkorov, who wore a sparkling lace outfit to the party, filmed his apology saying: “There are moments in everyone’s life when you walk through the wrong door. In these difficult times, heroic times, an artist of my caliber, a People’s Artist, cannot and should not be so irresponsible when participating in various events.”
Later, he made sure he was filmed apologizing to Mr. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov. Later, Mr. Peskov begged off talking about the party, telling reporters: “Let you and I be the only ones in the country who aren’t discussing this topic.”
Russians love history. For some, the “Almost Naked” party evokes a famous “fin de regime” gathering in St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace in 1903. During a two-day gala ball, the Romanovs and their tsarist nobles attended wearing jewel-encrusted 17th century style costumes, designed months in advance.
Later, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch recalled the extravaganza as “the last spectacular ball in the history of the empire.” Interviewed in exile, he said: “A new and hostile Russia glared through the large windows of the palace…while we danced, the workers were striking, and the clouds in the Far East were hanging dangerously low.”
Indeed, one year after the ball, in February 1904, Russia embarked on a disastrous 18-month conflict, the Russo-Japanese War. Fighting against an enemy Russians believed to be racially inferior, the Russian army proceeded to lose 10 battleships and 15 out of 18 battles. By the end, Russia lost 250,000 men killed or wounded. After one year of war, Russians rose up in the Revolution of 1905. That revolt was called by Lenin “The Great Dress Rehearsal” for his own uprising, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
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