This story was first published in the defunct Radar magazine on March 7, 2008
How “liberal” is newly-anointed Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, the one so many people are saying represents a possible thaw in post-Putinpolitics? My Moscow newspaper just found out the hard way—one of Russia’s leading printing presses censored us yesterday over a page-six photo essay that we’d headlined “Fucking For Medvedev.”
It is the first time in the 11-year history of The exile, that our newspaper has ever been censored. What’s odd about it for us is that the “Fucking For Medvedev” spread, while not exactly family-friendly, is hardly the most shocking thing we’ve ever printed; we’ve run a cover depicting a nearly-nude Putin fucking Bill Clinton from behind, another cover depicting Putin as a midget in the Hitlerjugen getting his head patted by a pleased Fuhrer, and a cover demanding that President Yeltsin “Die Already!” during one of his many illnesses.
The offending article/photo essay in the current issue covered a hardcore anti-Medvedev orgy by a performance art troupe named “Voina” (or “War”).
[Slightly less censored versions of the photos in question after the jump—they’re still plenty NSFW!]
Last Friday, the troupe slipped into Moscow’s Biology Museum, stripped off their clothes, and started to fuck—like, really, genuinely fuck—on the museum floor, under a banner reading “Fuck For The Successor Medvedev.” Their “art performance” lasted about 10 minutes before museum security pounced.
It didn’t take long for the troupe to exploit their performance, posting photos on the Russian-heavy Live Journal blogosphere and mass-mailing the media. But only a few outlets picked up the story—perhaps it had something to do with all the extreme hardcore photos of a fully-pregnant woman getting nailed from behind by a pasty little bohemian, whom we see in the first few photos desperately trying to wank himself to life for the performance.
We were the first to print the story in all of its skanky, gory detail—or rather, would have been the first, until our printing company, formerly Pravda’s printing house, halted the presses because, they alleged, the spread “offended the honor of the president”—currently a crime punishable by jail in Russia—and that it was “pornographic,” which is also legally gray and restricted. They were so incensed that they threatened to destroy our files—until we reminded them that doing so would itself be a crime.
With just over an hour to change the page and get it approved, we took the files back to our office and redid page six as one giant black page, with a small white box in the middle that read: “In Loving Memory of the Vladimir Putin Era 2000-2008.”
When we delivered the new proofs to the printers, they scoured our new blackened page, nervously suspicious that we’d planted some kind of evil American hidden-meaning-bomb into that obviously ironic little eulogy.
Screenshot of The eXiled’s first and only censored spread
There’s a lot of anxiety and timidity these days in Russia, the sort that sweeps over the country with every change of power, and these guys didn’t want to be the first ones loaded onto cattle wagons and sent off to the Kolyma gold mines. Finally, confident that we’d only delivered a single layer of irony, they printed up the edition, and it was distributed without incident.
Yesterday, two Russian news channels—Ren-TV (owned by state-run Gazprom) and O2 TV, a lame Russian MTV knockoff—called pestering us about the incident, threatening to run a story about it with or without my participation. I’m not sure how they found out, because I can’t find any news about our censorship scandal on the Russian Internet or newswires, and we haven’t reported it yet either (this Radar account is the first detailed one I know of). I didn’t take their calls, because I’ve already learned firsthand what a Russian-TV smear job looks like.
I’m not sure how this is going to end for us, but the significance of this first-ever censorship of an issue of the exile is clear to all of mankind: The ghost of Stalin is back, and it’s occupying a five-foot-two vessel named “Dmitry Medvedev.”
Above: Pussy Riot’s Tolokonnikova prepares to get mounted to protest rigged election of Medvedev
An eXile cover that the Kremlin didn’t censor—go figure:
Still like to know more? The eXile: Sex, Drugs and Libel in the New Russia co-authored by Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi (Grove).
Click the cover & buy the book!
Read more: censorship, medvedev, pussy riot, putin, radar magazine, voina nadezhda tolokonnikova, Mark Ames, eXile Classic, Recovered History, Russia Babylon
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16 Comments
Add your own1. Dimitri Ratz | August 22nd, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Filled with fear and mistrust, the little atoms fight while endless expanse awaits to be filled with cells descended from them. Unable to recognize the boundless supplies of matter and equalization of opposite sexes. Oblivious to balances that exist.
2. Mitchell | August 22nd, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Is the guy in the top hat supposed to look like Marx?
3. DtD | August 23rd, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Hey exHoles, is this dude from the Oslo Freedom Forum the same guy wanking it in Ames photo essay? He mentions his 4 year old daughter with his wife from pussy riot, which would be perfect timing. Oh man, could you imagine the look on those beige norwegian’s faces if they saw a picture of her getting rammed from behind with the ‘jizz on my head’ caption? Anyway, here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52u9heE2Z84&feature=player_embedded
Also, this is a test. This is only a test
4. Balls Deep | August 24th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
I just came.
5. Captain History | August 27th, 2012 at 6:57 am
Pussy Riot was banished from Voina for professionalism. They took Western money and management; that’s a no-no.
6. fdhfh | August 27th, 2012 at 4:28 pm
@
It is the same guy.
7. Dimitri Ratz | August 28th, 2012 at 9:48 pm
That fat ugly guy doing the blonde looks exactly like that fat pig Chris Christie from the Republican Convention. The one who is against government spending unless its spending trillions to finance zero interest loans to his corporate cronies. I mean great principal belief that you should work, hard work is what makes America great, because the top can just increase the money supply 35 times and suck your hardworking profits. I mean Obama sold out to the banks, but this low life lard scum is pure unadulterated Yelsin style gang that doesn’t mind talking down to you like your some retards to believe a word of it while simple look at their voting record shows their big government corporate welfare scum.
8. Dimitri Ratz | August 28th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
I’m not wishing for fat pig Chris Christie to choke on his next steak at a restaurant and die. Especially if it’s a ribeye, all oily, just wouldn’t be a pretty scene. But seriously he needs to shut his fat deformed drooling mouth, because nobody is that stupid and self hating to believe any of it. If i didn’t know any better looked like Banker Romney team is taking a fall for Banker Obama to create an illusion of opposition, and to give Obama more room in funding corporate welfare. Also, Romney’s wife looked like a mean bitch on TV while sitting on Romney’s right side.
9. The Dark Avenger | August 30th, 2012 at 10:24 am
Hey, perps, Conan Doyle used it in his first Sherlock Holmes story, it didn’t work for Charlie, and it’s not going to work now:
This image taken from TV footage provided by The Associated Press Television News shows a place where two women stabbed to death were found under this sign on the wall of their apartment in the central Russian city of Kazan on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. The sign is presumably written with blood, prosecutors said adding that the murderer probably tried to mislead police by the writing that supports three members of the provocative feminist band jailed for their “punk prayer” at a Moscow cathedral.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Russia-claims-killer-demands-Pussy-Riot-freed-3826319.php#ixzz253EiD8ym
10. Dimitri Ratz | August 30th, 2012 at 6:07 pm
The world has certain rules, and one of them is a red line of funding murderous violence against a nuclear armed nation with delivery capability. China has only about 20 intercontinental nuclear missiles without any warhead technology. Russia has about 18 hundred with multiple warheads ranging from 7 to 10 warheads, allowing for 18,000 delivery capability weapons against China’s 20 to 22. If China commands respect of its citizens to life surely no foreign interest group in the world will directly fund the killing of Russian citizens. So the murder is not linked to foreign funded Pussified band.
11. ale | September 1st, 2012 at 3:23 pm
apparently Voina kicked nadezhda & her husband out for being self-promoting, amoral, and power-hungry narcissist-provocateurs:
http://en.free-voina.org/post/11432689542
oopsie
12. Dimitri Ratz | September 4th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
It’s funny that Detached Penis by King Missile is played unedited on Russian Radio constantly (Red Radio, ect), but in the “uncensored” states hardly a station dare play it out of fear of a negative response campaign.
13. Dimitri Ratz | September 9th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
The group also did three scarecrows in Moscow with one scarecrow being a Jew, another one a homosexual, and a third one I don’t remember, with a sign that Moscow can do without. Its shameful that the English media doesn’t have anyone beside such nasty groups to throw their support behind to attack Russians. In a way it speaks volumes on how far Russia turned a corner, and level of civil society is finally flourishing without selling out its soul to its foreign masters.
14. Dimitri Ratz | September 12th, 2012 at 1:08 pm
I guess “Fucking for Medvedev” really paid off. His publicly petitioning for their release a few months earlier with their appeal coming up in few weeks. Looks like Medvedev wants in on the action lol
15. Dimitri's Mom | October 10th, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Dimitri, get your little ass back in bed, young man.
Fucking ignorant child. Why don’t you worry about your own piece of shit corrupt government.
16. max | July 21st, 2016 at 6:32 am
Вам не правильно переводят. не Medvedev а Little Bear.
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