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Moscow Court Temporarily Shutters Nightclub at Heart of 'Nearly Naked' Party Scandal

The Mutabor nightclub in Moscow. Mikhail Tereshchenko / TASS

A Moscow court has ordered the closure of the nightclub where a “nearly naked” party sparked controversy last month, Russian media reported Wednesday. 

Club Mutabor was forced to close its doors for 90 days over “violations of sanitary standards,” the state-run TASS news agency reported.

The independent Medizona news outlet reported earlier that Russia’s consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor requested the closure of the nightclub after a visitor had allegedly become ill from beer served there.

Russian celebrities and pop stars issued on-camera apologies for attending a scandalous “almost naked” party at Mutabor in late December — which was widely condemned in pro-Kremlin circles as unpatriotic and disrespectful to Russian soldiers.

According to TASS, the decision to shutter the nightclub was due to “the presence of an infectious disease” at the “nearly naked” party.

Moscow's Lefortovsky district court’s verdict has yet to enter force, TASS reported, and Mutabor’s owner can still appeal the ruling. 

The powerful backlash against the “nearly naked” party was allegedly escalated at the command of the Kremlin, sources in the government, the State Duma and the presidential administration told The Moscow Times last month.

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