In the second twerking scandal to rock Russia in recent weeks, several women who were filmed dancing in front of a World War II monument in southern Russia have been put in jail for up to 15 days, local authorities said Saturday.
A video of the performance posted on YouTube shows six women shaking their butts near the city of Novorossiisk's Minor Land monument, dedicated to a hilltop outpost that the Soviets recaptured from the Germans during the Battle of the Caucasus in 1943.
Three of the women are to serve jail terms ranging from 10 to 15 days for petty hooliganism, while two others avoided jail time on health reasons and only had to pay a fine, the regional Prosecutor's Office said in a statement on its website. The mother of the sixth dancer, who is under 16 years old, had to pay a fine for "failing to instill moral development" in her daughter.
The Soviet Union's victory in World War II, in which the Soviet Union lost tens of millions of people, is one of the biggest sources of patriotism in Russia today. Next month, for the 70th anniversary of the war's end, Moscow is planning an unparalleled celebration.
Two weeks ago a troupe of Russian teenage girls dressed up like bees in the Urals city of Orenburg caused quite a buzz after a video of them twerking in a dance school performance was posted on the Internet.
Some outraged viewers said the girls' bee costumes resembled the orange and black St. George's ribbon, which Russia uses in military awards and is associated with Soviet victory in World War II.
The girls' dance school was closed by authorities, and their instructors were threatened with criminal charges. Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said in a Twitter post that the dance was "vulgar" and "insulting."
The dance studio head told Russian media that the costumes and performance "had nothing to do" with the St. George's ribbon or World War II.
Contact the author at p.spinella@imedia.ru
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