A 27-year-old Russian OnlyFans model, having no previous experience in adult film, may end up in prison for posting her explicit content.
Diana Shurygina was detained as she came back to Russia from Bali, and she was placed under house arrest afterward, MSN says.
The accusations are based on Putin’s anti-pornography laws, which have often been used against OnlyFans performers, the outlet explains.
A Moscow District Court obliged Shurygina to be at home until the completion of investigations related to the accusation of distribution of pornographic content within the group, IBTimes UK reports.
This case concerns the distribution of explicit content: according to the prosecutor’s office, the images and videos were posted by Shurygina on her Telegram channel, as the law-enforcement agency told Meduza, as reported by IBTimes UK.
She wasn’t the only one to be arrested. Her co-author, Nastya Kholod, and German producer Ludwig Krichker were also detained, the St. Louis Riverfront Times reports.
All three people were placed under house arrest and may receive up to six years in prison if convicted, the outlet adds.
Shurygina became famous in Russia in 2017. The case of Shurygina was widely known due to several episodes of the “Let Them Talk” TV series about her case, Nashaniva writes.
Then she was a second-year student in the teachers’ college in Ulyanovsk, the outlet adds.
Shurygina claimed that she was drinking at the birthday party in March 2016, when she met a student, Sergei Semyonov, and he raped her after some time. He denies the charges, claiming that it was a consensual encounter.
Shurygina was convicted and initially sentenced to eight years; the term was later reduced to three years, Riverfront Times says.
The trial became a major media sensation, turning Shurygina into one of the most popular young Russian women, the outlet adds.
Afterward, Shurygina signed up for OnlyFans. According to the reports of Russian media outlets, in 2021 she created an account, where she sold explicit photos and videos to her subscribers, IBTimes UK says.
Thus, Shurygina was transformed from a crime victim and TV star into an internet celebrity.
This case drew attention to the Russian adult content market. According to Riverfront Times, BAZA reported an overall plan to investigate all Russian OnlyFans performers.
Police were going to review bloggers’ pages for adult content, and the number of criminal cases increased, BAZA reported.
According to some reports, Shurygina wanted to leave the country after becoming aware of the investigation. Pravda Germany reports that she flew from Bali to Moscow to take pictures and shoot adult films.
But learning about the prosecution, she wanted to return to Bali, but she was stopped, the outlet writes.
Kholod and a German producer were also detained later, Pravda Germany adds. All of them may be sentenced to up to six years according to the law on group pornography production.
However, Shurygina continues to work. Izvestia confirmed this on June 17, noting that sales of paid content continued even during the state of house arrest. A journalist called a seller and found that the subscription to the closed Telegram channel with premium content was still available. It cost 4,850 rubles.
According to the investigators, the premium paid channels were the places where Shurygina uploaded her explicit photos and videos, Izvestia says. The Moscow court extended her house arrest till July 19.
Various sources provide different terms of imprisonment. Nashaniva mentions two to six years and says that she was imprisoned in the pre-trial detention facility.
Other sources, including Riverfront Times and Pravda Germany, say that the maximum is six years for group pornography production.
Some experts link this case to the broader trend under Putin’s administration. LadBible reports that his government, since 2012, has begun to promote “traditional values”, which include fines for the “child-free ideology”, persecutions of the LGBT community, and other cases such as Shurygina’s.
However, Shurygina hasn’t been charged with any crime concerning her OnlyFans account yet. Her case isn’t clear yet: it remains unknown whether she’ll be sent to trial and what will become of her after the house arrest.
