An 'almost naked' party at a Moscow nightclub, held while Russia is engaged in a war with Ukraine and authorities are pushing an increasingly conservative social agenda, has provoked an unusually swift and powerful backlash from the authorities, pro-Kremlin lawmakers and bloggers, state media, and Orthodox Church groups. The scandal has been dominating the headlines for days, displacing stories about rising egg prices and inflation, at a time when Putin has doubled down on social conservatism, urging families to have eight or more children, and after Russia's supreme court ruled that LGBT activists should be designated as 'extremists'

Source: The Guardian December 28, 2023 17:10 UTC