Russian authorities arrested three women for dancing suggestively in front of a World War II memorial and posting the video on YouTube.
The court in Novorossiysk, which borders the Black Sea and 176 miles north of Sochi, sentenced a 19-year-old woman to 15 days in jail while the court gave 10 days to two women in their 20s. The court fined two other women “because of poor health” and allowed a minor to go without any punishment. However, the prosecutors want to press charges against her parents for “the failure to encourage the physical, intellectual, physiological, spiritual and moral development of a child.”
“This incident of disrespect for the memory of war history is unacceptable and any attempts to desecrate sites of military glory will be stopped immediately,” the prosecutors insisted.
Next month is the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. The government is preparing massive celebrations on May 9, which is known as Victory Day, the day the USSR defeated Germany. President Vladimir Putin invited numerous world leaders to the Victory Day parade. All of them, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, turned him down. One of the few leaders to join Putin will be North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The government is especially sensitive about WWII due to the embarrassment Putin received after the top leaders said no. He lashed out at the leaders:
Their goal is clear: to undermine the power and moral authority of modern Russia, to deprive her of her status as a victorious country – with all the ensuing international and legal consequences, to split and pit the public against each other, to use historic speculation for geopolitical games. Sometimes it sounds like obvious nonsense.
Today, unfortunately, we see not only attempts to misrepresent, to distort the events of the war, but also cynical, undisguised lies, blatant slander against an entire generation of people who lost almost everything for this victory – who defended peace on earth.
Even though the real reason may be political– the annexation of Crimea– this is not the first time the government has cracked down on twerking. In Orenburg, which is 915 miles east of Moscow, officials shut down a dance school after a video emerged of young girls twerking “in stripy leotards, long socks and mini-skirts.” It was called “pornographic,” while others did not approve of the girls wearing orange and black – “the colours of the St George ribbon that has become a symbol of patriotism in Russia.” Now the colors are associated with the pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine.
The mayor encouraged parents to “sign their children up for more ‘respectable’ and patriotic dances.”
“We have respectable ethnic dances…they are the ones that need to be taught,” he wrote. “We live on this land and we need to dance our national dances.”