Three Russian students jailed for twerking in front of Moscow Cathedral, nearly a year of ‘corrective labour’ in 'Gulag'

Three 18-year-old female students from the Stroganov Russian State University of Art and Industry in Moscow have been sentenced to 11 months of ‘corrective labour’ after they filmed themselves twerking in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and posted the video on TikTok.

The three women were convicted of ‘petty hooliganism’, accused of violating the public order and insulting the public sentiment. Traditional values group Sorok Sorokov have called them an ‘infection’ and they will multiply if ‘left unchecked’.

They were also expelled from the university. Vladimir Putin's Russia is trying to promote ‘traditional values’ and has himself attended the cathedral on several occasions. This is part of the broader crackdown under the current Russian government, emphasising conservative, traditional values, where self-expression is considered indecent, irrelevant and non-conforming to the state-endorsed morality.

On his visit to Alaska, Putin gifted two Russian Orthodox icons to Archbishop Alexi of the Church of Alaska, where once Tsarist missionaries brought in Catholicism, and in return, Alexi gifted the Russian President an icon of Saint Herman.

Similar crackdowns have targeted models who posted LGBTQ+ related content, like an OnlyFans model in Red Square and a couple kissing in public, resulting in public detentions, forced apologies and censorship.