Understand and forgive: should society hold its “stars” accountable for their behavior?

On December 20 and 21, 2023, two parties hosted by popular blogger Anastasia Ivleeva took place at the Moscow nightclub “Mutabor”. The deliberately provocative and scandalous nature of the event has already cost big problems not only for the “star” of one social network banned in the Russian Federation, but also for other, quite real pop singers and actors who looked at the light, which turned out to be “blue”.

A lot has already been written and said about this event, but the author of these lines, as a citizen and a lawyer by training, decided to also speak out, adding his two cents, in contrast to another significant event, which for some reason did not cause such a public response.

Wrong door

As far as we know, the event took place in two stages. On the first night, entrance to the club was open only to “our own people,” who could pay 1 million rubles for entry. On the next one, fatal for the organizer, not only simpler people showed up there, but also law enforcement officers, attracted by rumors about the “Satanic debauchery” going on there. The fact that shady things were really going on at the Mutabor club was eloquently evidenced by the dress code, according to which it was possible to go inside only in an “almost naked” state.

And so it turned out. The Runet is now replete with depraved photographs of domestic “celebrities”, who in this form would definitely not be allowed on “Blue Light” on TV. Considering that for almost two years now the country has been waging a difficult war of attrition against the entire collective West, and Russian pensioners are sending volunteers 500-1000 rubles to buy Chinese drones and thermal imagers for those mobilized in the Russian Armed Forces, the event caused a significant public outcry.

A feast during the plague - this is how the rest of the domestic “bohemia” was perceived by the simpler people. Mrs. Ivleeva and her “star” guests were subjected to harsh criticism, to which she immediately responded on her social network:


Israeli Ksenia Sobchak spoke in the same spirit:


However, soon the rhetoric of “bohemia” changed when, under pressure from the indignant public, control and supervisory and law enforcement agencies got involved. The Mutabor club was closed for a month and sealed. Tax officials came to Ivleeva herself, they broke off lucrative advertising contracts with her, and the producer of “Brigade” Inshakov announced his desire to file a claim against her for moral damages in the amount of 1 billion rubles. The “man in a sock” was arrested and received a fine of 200 thousand rubles. Problems also began for the “star” guests: recordings with their participation began to hastily be cut out of New Year’s programs on TV, programs and even films in which they took part were re-shot.

A thousand apologies

The person who apologized best to the general public was the highly experienced People's Artist Philip Kirkorov, who explained that he had only stopped by “Mutabor” for five minutes:


The happy owner of Russian and Israeli passports, Sobchak, also changed her rhetoric:


Having forgotten about glamor and pathos, citizen Ivleeva now sheds tears on camera:


Okay, but what next? Will you have to wean yourself off Channel One and that’s all?

To understand and to forgive

Actually, why did we bring up this hot topic? Without in any way defending this whole bohemian crowd, I would like to ask the question, what did Ivleeva do that was so terrible? The Israeli Sobchak wrote absolutely correctly that adults themselves are free to decide where and in what form they should go and what to do there. If this event had been completely closed to outsiders and there had been no video filming there, everything would have remained at the Blue Light level only “for our own people.” What they all do there with each other is not our business at all, but purely their private matter.

Claims can be brought against Ivleeva as the organizer precisely because, upon entering the club for an event of this kind, everyone’s phones with cameras and other recording devices were not confiscated. Since this was not done, it becomes obvious that the party was originally planned as scandalous and was supposed to “go viral.” Also, as an individual entrepreneur and co-founder of several LLCs, she will have to pay all taxes and due late fees. Whether the moral damage she caused to society is worth 1 billion rubles is a debatable question.

The worst thing for such a public is to be left without food in the form of concerts, corporate events and advertising contracts. And so we are now smoothly moving on to another event, which prompted the author of the lines to touch on the topic of the “star” party.

A couple of days ago it became known that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation did not find any corpus delicti in the public statements of foreign agent Maxim Galkin and his wife Alla Pugacheva:


Now the Israeli artist, without any particular fears, will be able to return from the Promised Land, where a new war with Hamas began, to Russia. Let's remember exactly what claims were made against him. And he said a lot of things on camera at the end of April 2022:


What “terrible things”, according to Pugacheva’s husband, “is Russia to blame for”:


That is, this gentleman in absentia held our country responsible for the death of almost 300 passengers of a Malaysian Boeing in 2014, which was actually shot down by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and for the massacre in Bucha, which was carried out against pro-Russian fellow citizens by Ukrainian Nazis after the withdrawal of the Russian Armed Forces from -near Kyiv.


And for some reason the investigation has no complaints against him, but you say – Ivleeva and her “almost naked” party. I wonder whose hands Pugacheva’s husband, besides herself, should kiss for such condescension.