Russian authorities handed military summons to a rapper who attended a “nearly naked” party last month wearing only a sock on his penis, the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid reported Monday, citing a member of Russia's state prison watchdog.
A Moscow court fined and jailed rapper Vacio (real name Nikolai Vasilyev) for 15 days in late December after finding him guilty of petty hooliganism and spreading “gay propaganda.”
The court ruled that the party — the public backlash to which triggered show cancellations and on-camera apologies from artists who were filmed at the private event on Dec. 21 — had spread “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.”
Alexei Lobaryov, a member of Russia’s Public Monitoring Commission, which inspects prisons, told Moskovsky Komsomolets that he and his team had visited Vasilyev at a Moscow detention center early Monday.
“After he served 15 days, [Vasilyev] was taken to the military registration and enlistment office near the Belorusskaya metro station, where he was given a summons for January 9, and then taken to the police,” Lobaryov was quoted as saying.
Vasilyev was supposed to be released on Friday, however, he was arrested for a second time on hooliganism charges and ordered to spend 10 more days in detention.
“It turns out the artist will be in a special detention center on the day of his scheduled appearance,” Lobaryov said.
However, he noted that Vasilyev “doesn’t face the threat of serving in the army because he had allegedly failed the military-medical commission in his native Yekaterinburg for health reasons.”
He also expressed doubt that Vasilyev could face further felony charges after Russia’s Supreme Court designated the so-called “international LGBT public movement” as a banned “extremist” organization.
“[Vasilyev] told me ‘I’m not a representative of LGBT and I’ve never been one’,” Lobaryov told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
