{"id":2362,"date":"2021-04-28T08:23:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T08:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/russian-man-on-pornography-charge-for-sharing-rammstein-clip.html"},"modified":"2021-04-28T08:23:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T08:23:20","slug":"russian-man-on-pornography-charge-for-sharing-rammstein-clip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/russian-man-on-pornography-charge-for-sharing-rammstein-clip.html","title":{"rendered":"Russian Man On Pornography Charge For Sharing Rammstein Clip"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Andrei

A court in northwestern Russia is set to deliver its verdict on April 28 in the case against an activist accused of \u201cdistributing pornography\u201d for sharing a video by the German rock band Rammstein in 2014.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International called the case against Andrei Borovikov, who faces three years in prison if convicted, as \u201cutterly absurd,\u201d saying he was being \u201cpunished solely for his activism, not his musical taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borovikov was formerly the coordinator of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny\u2019s Arkhangelsk regional headquarters.<\/p>\n

Describing Borovikov\u2019s prosecution as \u201ca mockery of justice,\u201d the London-based human rights group\u2019s Moscow office director, Natalia Zviagina, called for all charges against him to be dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russian authorities should be focusing on turning around the spiraling human rights crisis they have created, not devising ludicrous new ways of prosecuting and silencing their critics,\u201d Zviagina said in a statement ahead of the verdict.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Borovikov shared a music video for Rammstein\u2019s song titled Pussy on the Russian social network VKontakte.<\/p>\n

More than six years later, in September 2020, the activist was charged with \u201cproduction and distribution of pornography.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have requested a three-year sentence in a high security penal colony if Borovikov is found guilty by the Lomonosovsky District Court in Arkhangelsk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the first time the Russian authorities have used an overbroad definition of \u2018pornography\u2019 as a pretext for locking up their critics,\u201d Zviagina said, citing the case of Yulia Tsvetkova, an LGBT activist from Russia’s Far East who stood trial earlier this month on pornography charges over her drawings of women\u2019s bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is astonishing that cases like this even make it to court,\u201d Zviagina said.<\/p>\n

\"Rammstein:

The music video posted by Borovikov came to the authorities\u2019 attention six months ago when a former volunteer at his office informed the police. Amnesty International said it suspected the volunteer was employed as an agent provocateur to help fabricate the case.<\/p>\n

The prosecution said the video had been seen by \u201cnot fewer than two people\u201d and ordered \u201ca sexological and cultural examination\u201d of the clip, before experts found it to be of \u201cpornographic nature\u201d and \u201cnot containing artistic value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rammstein are no strangers to controversy.<\/p>\n

In Belarus, the Council for Public Morals in 2010 protested against Rammstein’s concerts in the country that year, saying the band’s shows were "open propaganda of homosexuality, masochism, and other forms of perversions, violence, cruelty, and vulgarism."<\/p>\n

In 2019, a man in Belarus was charged with producing and distributing pornographic materials for posting a clip in 2014 of the band’s video Pussy, which showed graphic sex scenes.<\/p>\n

That same year, a video for the group’s song Deutschland showed band members dressed as concentration camp prisoners, sparking outrage, especially among Jewish groups.<\/p>\n