The sex industry is often described as a “war-proof” economy, but even Russia’s sex workers are feeling the cold pinch of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February last year, sex workers in Russia have had to adapt as their clients increasingly flee the country or are sent to war.
A sex-party organiser, IIya Luke Lukichev, told the Russian investigative outlet Theins.ru about a shift in people’s behaviour.
“I can say for sure that last year, there were more people at swinger events,” says Lukichev.
According to Taisiya Blanch, co-founder of the Moscow-based operator Kinky Party, at the beginning of the war, there were noticeably fewer people willing to participate.
“Society was experiencing intense levels of stress and nerves were shot, afterwards demand suddenly jumped,” says Blanch.
A woman named Kristina, who is involved in providing human rights assistance to sex workers, says there has been a reassessment of values.
“There was a boom in hasty marriages,” she says.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mobilised drive to gather more troops
began and nationwide earnings fell by 30-50%, according to online magazine Sekret Firmy.
The nation’s sex workers were some of the hardest hit as their main clients were the Russian middle class, many of whom fled the country when the war began and when Putin introduced conscription.
In November, Russian police then began cracking down harder on sex workers and mainly targeted brothels and webcam girls around Moscow.
The war also created divisions between political classes and age groups. Many have fallen out over their difference in opinion about Putin’s invasion.
“Some girls even lost regular customers due to the fact that they did not see eye to eye,” says Kristina.
She adds 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”.
Compiled by Mashudu Mabila
