The Krasnogvardeysky District Court of St. Petersburg found the participants in the photo shoot at the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery guilty of insulting the feelings of believers (Part 2 of Article 148 of the Criminal Code) and desecration of burial places (Clause “a” of Part 2 of Article 244 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the press service of the city courts.
Artists Anna Panteleeva and Kristina Rozhkova were sentenced to two years probation each, and model Yaroslava Gumennaya and photographer Sergei Evstyukhin were sentenced to one and a half years.
The prosecutor requested three to four years in a colony settlement for them.
The young people held a photo shoot in June 2024. Panteleeva and Gumennaya participated in it as models. Panteleeva posed topless and tied with shibari rope at the graves. The barren room was tied with the same rope for filming to a cross installed at one of the graves. Then Panteleeva published a story from the shooting.
The prosecution also alleged that Rozhkova “directed the actions” of the models and, together with Evstyukhin, filmed them. Rozhkova herself initially said that she did not participate in the photo shoot.
In court, all defendants admitted guilt.
- A case was opened against the participants in the photo shoot after the “Male State” drew attention to Panteleeva’s story and harassed the artist. In addition, Timur Bulatov, a homophobe from St. Petersburg, wrote a denunciation against her.
- After the arrest, the participants in the photo shoot spent a month in a pre-trial detention center, but in July they were transferred to house arrest or under recognizance not to leave.