Russian Court Finds Nude In Ad Violates Religious Norms

In Moscow this week, a Russian trial court has upheld a complaint brought by Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) against a magazine publisher that ran an ad featuring a semi-nude model in its Moulin Rouge magazine. Interfax reported yesterday that the FAS relied on quotations from the Bible and the Koran in demonstrating that the ad violates "the commonly accepted norms of humanity and morality" and contains "offensive images of the religious beliefs of natural persons". Alexander Osokin, lawyer for the publisher, Rodinov Publishing House, says his client will appeal. He said: "we did not insult religious things; the model in the advertisement does not hold any crosses or crescents or other symbols in her hands. The FAS can go too far in this way and turn our state into a clerical one."