From webcams to handcuffs How Russia criminalized its live-stream porn industry

The Russian authorities are prosecuting more and more “producers and distributors of pornographic materials.” According to a new investigation by Novaya Gazeta Europe, the number of convictions for porn-related offenses jumped 1.5 times between prewar 2021 and 2023 to more than 315. The shift follows a ruling by the Russian Supreme Court’s Plenum, which classified live-streamed performances by webcam models as pornographic productions. Novaya Gazeta Europe journalists examined how Russia’s stricter enforcement of anti-pornography laws has affected the lives of webcam studio workers and given police another tool in the crackdown on queer bloggers. Meduza summarizes their findings.

Legal limbo

Russia’s webcam modeling industry is roughly two decades old. In the late 2000s, studios emerged in larger cities, typically operating out of apartments where models were supplied with Internet access and worked out of individual rooms. For many years, Russia’s webcam adult entertainment existed in a legal gray area because its live broadcasts weren’t subject to the country’s laws against prerecorded pornographic videos and images. That changed in late 2022, when the Plenum of Russia’s Supreme Court issued a ruling that erased this loophole, explicitly outlawing “actions performed live (in particular on websites that allow users to stream video — i.e., streaming platforms)” under Article 242 of the Criminal Code. 

Since the Supreme Court’s decision, Russia’s justice system has convicted more “pornographic materials traffickers” and sent more than twice as many to prison (up from 14 in 2021 to 37 in 2023). According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, the cases overwhelmingly target online content.

The new policing practices have introduced additional hazards to an already dangerous industry. Even before Russian law enforcement declared open season on webcam models, studio owners often exploited their performers by withholding pay without warning, deliberately downplaying the legal risks of the job, and being outright abusive. For example, an anonymous webcam model told the Samara-based outlet 66.ru in 2022 that her coworker was denied leave to attend her brother’s funeral. “Time off requires one week’s notice. This is sudden, so — too bad. Now grab a dildo [and get back to work],” the woman recalled.

Police raids on webcam studios have driven some models to work from home, hoping to slip under the authorities’ radar, while studio owners have developed new security protocols, urging performers to purge their social media presence and practice dressing in a hurry when anyone enters the “office.” Despite these measures, most Russian webcam models say they know someone who’s been subjected to police searches, interrogations, arrest, or even jail time, says Novaya Gazeta Europe. When a case goes to court, performers are usually treated as mere witnesses and spared the worst of it, but not always.

Further reading

‘Mom, is it true?’ What happens when children find out their mother is a sex worker. A report from Russia’s heartland.

4 years ago

Further reading

‘Mom, is it true?’ What happens when children find out their mother is a sex worker. A report from Russia’s heartland.

4 years ago

A weapon for anti-gay zealots

The messaging platform and social network Telegram is brimming today with bloggers who sell access to private channels where they post erotic photos and videos. This growing supply of adult content has become ammunition not just for police but also for the activists who hunt LGBT people by reporting them under various criminal and administrative statutes. 

Enemies of Russia’s queer community are opportunistic in their crusade. For example, in 2023, censorship advocate Yekaterina Mizulina succeeded in getting a criminal case opened against transgender blogger Hilmi Forks. Initially, Mizulina’s Safe Internet League focused on violations of Russia’s ban on LGBT “propaganda,” but officials ultimately found it more “convenient” to prosecute Forks under the country’s anti-pornography law. According to the Telegram channel SHOT, the case was based on videos showing “scenes of sexual intercourse” that Forks had shared online in late 2022.

Another high-profile case involved blogger Matvey Volodin, who posted an incomprehensible mix of pornographic content and political commentary, often praising Vladimir Putin and criticizing Russia’s queer community. Volodin (no relation to Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma) argued that police only targeted LGBT people if they openly “propagated” their identity or tried to “push their views on others.” In an ill-fated stunt to demonstrate the absence of state homophobia in Russia, he repeatedly traveled to the North Caucasus and filmed content for his channel. 

In late May 2024, Volodin went to Makhachkala and attended a party that ended in a police raid. Several human rights activists and journalists speculate that local anti-gay activists used Volodin as “bait” to entrap gay men from the region. Volodin denies these accusations.

Yaroslav Rasputin, editor of the LGBT outlet Parni+, told Novaya Gazeta Europe that he believes Dagestani blogger Khadzhimurad Khanov initiated the case that targeted Volodin and other men in Makhachkala. Six months earlier, Khanov had complained publicly that the city was becoming “the unofficial gay capital of the North Caucasus” and hinted that something had to be done about it. Rasputin explained the plot as he understands it:

A few months later, Volodin was released from pretrial detention in Makhachkala. He returned to Moscow and resumed filming adult videos, but he soon deleted everything from his channel. Many of Volodin’s Dagestani acquaintances now face criminal charges for distributing pornography. According to the human rights group SK SOS, two of these men successfully fled Russia, while another was sentenced to probation after a stint in jail.