A Russian court ruled Wednesday that a controversial documentary accusing Kremlin officials of widespread corruption should be removed from the Internet. The documentary, which was a viral hit, fueled massive anti-government protests earlier this year.
Russia has now banned the film, but one unlikely site has re-uploaded it and is offering it to viewers: Pornhub.
The documentary, “Don’t call him Dimon,” alleges that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and several other top aides to Vladimir Putin built a lavish empire of mansions, luxury yachts, multi-million estates with illicit money. The video has had 21 million views since it was posted in March. It was produced by Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who has promised to run for President next year.
⚡️Usmanov has won his lawsuit against Navalny, who will now be required by law to delete his smash-hit investigation into Dmitry Medvedev.
— Meduza in English (@meduza_en) May 31, 2017
Navalny was arrested along with other hundreds of people for participating in the country’s recent anti-corruption rallies, which his documentary sparked. Since then, he also has been attacked with a chemical liquid that was splashed in this face. The government brought a defamation case against him to get the documentary taken down from the Internet, and on Wednesday, the court ruled in favor of the Kremlin.
PornHub’s page on Vkontakte is now hinting that it would happily host @Navalny’s investigative film on Medvedev. God-level SMM, @Pornhub. pic.twitter.com/P4A2B6KU5B
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) May 31, 2017
But just as soon as it was removed in Russia, Pornhub, which has its own axe to grind with the Russian government, posted an offer on VKontakte, the Russian Facebook, to host Navalny’s film. Minutes later, Pornhub users were downloading it.
Update: roughly 9 minutes after PornHub posted its offer, user bluesausage1488 indeed shared Navalny's film on the site. Check out the tags. pic.twitter.com/fhZCGO2KE3
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) May 31, 2017
Перезалил видос на PornHub: https://t.co/WtBtPDvbmW
— Alexander V. Litreev (@alexlitreev) May 31, 2017
Pornhub is no fan of Russia because the country banned the service last fall. The company was trying to get “un banned” by Russia’s Roskomnadzor (telecommunications “supervisor”) by offering its officials Premium Pornhub accounts. Six months later Russia decided to allow access to pornhub.com, but has continued blocking the site’s Russian domain.
.@roscomnadzor if we give you guys a Pornhub Premium account, will you un ban Pornhub in Russia?
— Pornhub ARIA (@Pornhub) September 14, 2016
