Andrei Borovikov is currently being charged with "production and distribution of pornography" after sharing the pornographic version of Rammstein's "Pussy" music video on VKontakte (the Russian equivalent of Facebook) in 2014. Borovikov faces three years in prison for the charges and claims they are "utterly absurd," adding the only reason he is being charged is that he was a former coordinator for jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.
Of course Rammstein guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe caught wind of the legal situation and took to Instagram to respond. Kruspe called the charges shocking and added that "Rammstein have always stood up for the freedom of art as a guaranteed basic right of all people."
Amnesty International Moscow office director Natalia Zviagina told Radio Free Europe that the charges are a "mockery of justice" and should be dropped. She continued “The Russian authorities should be focusing on turning around the spiraling human rights crisis they have created, not devising ludicrous new ways of prosecuting and silencing their critics.”
Russian authorities became aware of the clip being shared when a former volunteer at Borovikov's office, believed to be a plant, reported him to authorities. Prosecutors ordered “a sexological and cultural examination” before determining the clip's pornographic nature. Prosecutors stress that no more than two people saw the clip.
