Daily talk show «60 minutes» on the channel «Russia 1», in which the spouses Olga Skabeeva and Evgeny Popov they discuss socio-political topics with the guests, it turned out to be at the center of the scandal. The Moscow court fined VGTRK for showing frames with a BDSM scene on the air of a talk show, despite the fact that the age marking of the program is “12+”.
“VGTRK committed a violation of the established procedure for distributing mass media products among children containing information that harms their health and (or) development, that is, committed an offense for which responsibility is provided for in Part 2 of Article 13.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation,” the court decision says.
What issue are we talking about and why did they show BDSM footage in it?
On June 21, 2021, the next program of the talk show “60 minutes” was aired. During the discussion of Russian-American relations and US sanctions against Russia, host Evgeny Popov (he was the only one hosting the show that day) asked to display a candid video in the studio. In it, the American candidate for the Manhattan City Council Zach Weiner he was sitting in his underpants and a leather mask, and a half-naked girl was torturing a stripped politician.
“Take the kids away from the screens. These New York guys dictate their will to us, and that’s what it is,” Popov commented on the video.
As follows from the court decision published in the mos-sud court file, this program contained scenes of an exciting nature, in which sexually explicit actions were demonstrated, as well as a partially naked female body (without showing the genitals).
What fine was awarded to VGTRK for showing BDSM scenes on the air?
The Moscow court found VGTRK guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 2 of Article 13.21 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of the procedure for manufacturing or distributing mass media products”) and imposed a fine of 20,000 rubles.
As reported in the court’s ruling, the defendant’s representative pleaded guilty.
Who is Zach Weiner?
On the website of 26-year-old Zack Weiner, it is said that he is an actor (starred in the films “Released from the Cage”, “The Oath”, “Shelly”, etc.), works as a screenwriter and producer. He was a co-founder of Stag Pictures studio. According to the New York Post, Zack’s Father, Eric Weiner, is one of the creators of the popular children’s educational television show “Dora the Explorer”.
In 2021, Zach Weiner was a candidate for the Manhattan City Council, but did not qualify.
After unknown people released candid footage with Zack’s participation, he wrote on social networks that he did not want his frequent video to be made public, “but it happened and I am not ashamed,” Weiner wrote on his Twitter account.
Information sources: mos-sud.ru/, nypost.com/