Bum rap: Russia’s crackdown lands Insta flashers in prison

Ruslan Bobiev and Anastasia Chistova were jailed for ten months after taking a suggestive photo outside St Basil’s
Ruslan Bobiev and Anastasia Chistova were jailed for ten months after taking a suggestive photo outside St Basil’s

The model was dressed in a fake Russian police uniform and her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail as she knelt in front of her Instagram blogger boyfriend near Red Square, his hand hovering near her head.

In the background of the photograph were the onion domes of St Basil’s Cathedral, one of Russia’s most recognisable Orthodox Christian churches.

Within a day of Ruslan Bobiev, 23, posting the suggestive image, which was widely viewed as an imitation of oral sex, police arrested him and his girlfriend, Anastasia Chistova, 19.

A terrified and tearful Bobiev, who is from Tajikistan, a predominantly Muslim country in central Asia, recorded a number of videos from police custody, begging forgiveness from “the Russian nation.”

Chistova also apologised, saying