Russian Activist Faces Years in Prison for Sharing Rammstein Video
Update: Andrei Borovikov has been found guilty and will serve 2.5 years in prison.
A Russian man has been charged with “production and distribution of pornography” for sharing Rammstein’s “Pussy” video on social media. Andrei Borovikov, former coordinator for anti-Putin political activist Alexei Navalny, could face years in prison for sharing the Rammstein video back in 2014.
Rammstein fans will surely remember the German band’s pornographic video for “Pussy,” which depicts the members of Rammstein (their heads superimposed on porn stars’ bodies) having full-on, uncensored sex. The video was released in 2009 and hosted on a pornographic site.
According to prosecutors, Andrei Borovikov shared the “Pussy” video in 2014 on social network VKontakte (the Russian equivalent of Facebook). He was charged in September 2020, over six years later.
The case against Borovikov has been labeled as “utterly absurd” by Amnesty International. “It is blatantly obvious that he is being punished solely for his activism, not his musical taste,” said Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director.
“The 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,” Zviagina elaborated to Radio Free Europe.
Prosecutors have requested a three-year sentence in a high-security penal colony if Borovikov is found guilty by the Lomonosovsky District Court.
Borovikov was formerly the coordinator of Alexei Navalny’s regional headquarters. Navalny is the leader of the Russia of the Future party and a founding member of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. He attempted to run for President against Vladimir Putin in the 2018 election, but was barred by Russia’s electoral commission due to prior criminal convictions.
In 2020, Navalny was hospitalized for one month after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. As of 2021, Navalny has been imprisoned in a corrective labour colony and has reportedly been tortured by Russian authorities.
A Russian court will deliver its verdict in the Borovikov case tomorrow (April 29). Stay tuned for further updates. [via Metal Injection]