There was famously “no sex in the USSR”, but how about during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Russian sex workers and swingers have had to adapt to a rapidly changing environment this past year as potential clients flee the country or go to war.
Those remaining are either becoming more family oriented or, conversely, have adopted a heightened ‘live for the moment’ attitude. “I can say for sure that last year, there were more people at swinger events,” a party organiser, Ilya Lukichev, told the Russian investigative outlet theins.ru.
Taisiya Blanch, co-founder of the Moscow-based operator Kinky Party, said: “At first, after February 24, there were noticeably fewer people willing to participate. Society was experiencing intense levels of stress — nerves were shot.” Afterwards “demand suddenly jumped,” she said, as people appeared to seek any form of distraction.
Sex workers, especially those at the middle and lower end of the market, have been reporting a fall in revenue, but business has been picking up near training camps for mobilised soldiers, such as in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. “There has been a reassessment of values,” according to a woman named Kristina involved in providing human rights assistance to Russian sex workers. “There was a boom in hasty marriages.”
When President Putin’s mobilisation drive began in September, earnings fell by 30 to 50 per cent, according to the online magazine Sekret Firmy. Hardest hit were the escorts charging 3,000 to 10,000 rubles (£35 to £115). Their main clients had been Russia’s shrinking middle classes who departed the country en masse when the war began.
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Police have started to crack down harder on sex workers and targeted brothels and “webcam girls” around Moscow in November.
The politics of war have also affected relationships between sex workers and clients and among swinging and sex party communities. “Within the community, discussion of politics, children, LGBT, drugs and the ROC [special military operation] is strictly prohibited,” Lukichev said.
“Some were for the war, some were against it,” Kristina was quoted as saying. “Some girls even lost regular customers due to the fact that they did not see eye to eye.” She added that as part of a “publicity stunt” at the beginning of the war, one parlour dressed its employees in Ukrainian embroidered shirts so that clients could “punish” them.