Image source, Moscow courts
Anastasia Ivleva (right) appeared before the Lefortovo Court in Moscow on Friday
TV presenter and influencer Anastasia Ivleeva has already apologized twice for hosting a “semi-naked” party at a club in Moscow, sparking a moral backlash in wartime Russia.
Now Moscow's Lefortovo court has fined her 100,000 rubles (£870; $1,100) for arranging it.
“I would like to ask you, people, for a second chance,” she pleaded in an Instagram video this week.
She was convicted of organizing a group presence that violated public order.
But Friday's fine may not be the end of her public humiliation.
An already remorseful Ivleeva has promised to donate proceeds from ticket sales to charity.
But another court registered a class action lawsuit against her for “moral damage” worth 1 billion rubles, signed by 22 people, who want her to hand over the billion to a group that donates money to Russians fighting in Ukraine.
After the December 20 concert at Moscow's Motapor nightclub, a video emerged of Russian celebrities wearing lingerie, lingerie and, in one case, socks and a strategically placed pair of shoes.
What had been a private party soon became public property amid the wartime climate of growing intolerance. It also served as a distraction from anger over rising egg prices.
Russian rapper Fashio, whose one-sock outfit led to his arrest, has been sentenced to 15 days in jail for “disorderly conduct”. Known as Nikolai Vasiliev, he was convicted of promoting “unconventional sexual relations” and sentenced to a fine double that of Ivleva.
As BBC Russia editor Steve Rosenberg put it, pro-Kremlin bloggers, members of parliament and activists who supported the war were furious. “How could celebrities go out and celebrate like this when Russian soldiers were putting their lives at risk in a ‘special military operation’?”
Image source, Instagram/_AGENTGIRL_
Anastasia Ivleeva who held the party at Motapor nightclub in Moscow was photographed with singer Philip Kirkorov
“Our soldiers on the front lines are definitely not fighting for this,” said pro-censorship activist Ekaterina Mizulina, who runs the Russian Association for a Safer Internet.
Other guests have been punished in various ways, with concerts or sponsorship contracts cancelled. Some of these programs are said to have been removed from the pre-recorded glitzy TV show on Channel One on New Year's Eve, which many Russians may now be watching to see who was deleted.
Veteran singer Lolita Milyavskaya She says her concerts have been canceled and she has been “cut off from television.” Anastasia Ivleva She has watched her face disappear from an advertising campaign for mobile phone company MTS and her business faces scrutiny from the tax department.
Former Eurovision singer Dima Bilan And TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak He said sorry too.
The so-called Russian pop king Philip Kirkorov He was as profuse in his apologies to the audience as any of his fellow guests, saying simply: “There are moments in everyone's life when they walk through the wrong door.”
Kirkorov was widely considered to be President Vladimir Putin's favorite singer, and called on his “mistake” not to affect his career in “Russia, the only country where I live as an artist and as a citizen.”
Suggestions that he might be denied the Medal of Honour appear to be false, but he was removed from a poster for a New Year's Eve TV movie called Ivan Vasilievich Changes Everything.
The remake of a popular old Soviet-era film features Kirkorov in the role of Peter the Great, and the TV channel's director said some scenes will be reshot before it is broadcast.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin distanced itself from the protest. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Let you and I be the only ones in the country who do not discuss this topic.”
“Internet practitioner. Social media maven. Certified zombieaholic. Lifelong communicator.”