Merging war and sex in what skeptics said was a smear campaign, a short story has gone on sale on Amazon.com detailing the sexual exploits of an iconic separatist leader in Ukraine.
The bluntly titled "Sucking Strelkov" is 5,700 words long (22 pages) and can be had for a modest $1.93.
The novelette "is the story of a chance encounter with one of the most evil men in Europe" that "contains depictions of rough M/M [male-on-male] intercourse," the description on Amazon.com reads.
The story tells of a porn film crew looking to shoot a video with on-duty soldiers, according to a summary published by blogger Matthew Gault on the Medium.com blogging platform.
The crew ends up in Donetsk, the stronghold of the eponymous pro-Russian separatist republic in eastern Ukraine, where rebel leader Igor Girkin — aka Strelkov — rapes the cameraman to express his disapproval of their quest, Gault said.
The story is credited to one I. Van Der Woude, an apparent pseudonym based on a name for the disfiguring genetic disorder Van Der Woude syndrome.
"Sucking Strelkov," which ranked an unassuming 118,944th place in the Amazon Kindle Store as of this article's publication, became available in late July, but went under the media radar until this week.
Strelkov, 43, is a retired officer of Russia's Federal Security Service, a historical re-enactor and a veteran of Bosnian and Transdnestrian conflicts who spearheaded the separatist movement in Donetsk.
He has made no public appearances in recent weeks, and in mid-August his allies announced his resignation, which came amid rumors that he had been seriously injured during the outnumbered rebels' slow retreat before the Ukrainian army.
No insurgency representatives had commented on the smut publication as of Monday evening.
Gault said the story was so "unsexy" that it was likely not the apolitical work of an honest porn connoisseur, but the latest salvo in the Russian-Ukrainian media war that has accompanied the bloodshed.
See also:
Ukrainian Rebel Leader's Father Linked Evolution to Masturbation
Contact the author at a.eremenko@imedia.ru
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