Online Talks on Eurasian Media, the collaborative intitative between TaRC and the Russian Media Lab (University of Helsinki) rolls on yet another season!
We will begin the autumn term with a presentation about how Russian celebrities become targets of enemy framing. Viktor Lambin focuses on the topic with his talk “Russian war-time morality and state-society interactions: The case of Nastya Ivleeva’s almost naked party”.
Nastya Ivleeva’s “almost naked party“, a private event held in December 2023 resulted in public outrage in Russia. Why did this celebrity scandal became so special and representative amidst other regularly occurring celebrity fuss in Russia?
Viktor Lambin’s research demonstrates how Russian celebrities, who publicly fail to conform to the morality of wartime Russia, become targets of enemy framing by the Russian authorities and pro-war activists.
The data collected by Lambin represents manifestations of reactions to the party, expressed by Russian officials and pro-state activists on their social media accounts in a two-week period following the event. To demonstrate the celebrities’ attempts to restore their public image, Lambin has collected relevant manifestations of their reactions, as well as the actions they undertook to deconstruct their enemy image in the months that followed the public outcry.
A mixed-method approach of critical discourse to the collected data reveals the key enemy categorisations that were articulated towards the celebrities, as well as the narratives that the celebrities employed to repent their “crimes”. Lambin attempts to point out the actual strings that Ivleeva’s “almost naked party” may have offended and what it tells us about wartime Russian morality and state-society interactions.
Presenter bio:
Viktor Lambin is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. His research focuses on enemization in Russian public discourse. Lambin works as a member of The Mannerheim Professorship Working Group, which explores the central issues of Russia’s foreign and security policy and strategic thinking.
Event info:
This Online Talk will be held on Zoom on Tuesday 9 September 2025, 12.00–13.30 Finnish time (GMT+3). Discussion will be moderated by Dr Katja Lehtisaari (Tampere University).
Participation in the event requires registration. Please register via this link before Sunday 7 September 2025 at 23.45 Finnish time.