Far-right activists break up erotic party at St. Petersburg yoga studio

Activists from the ultranationalist group Russian Community stormed a yoga studio in St. Petersburg over the weekend, breaking up an erotic party that they described as an “occult bacchanal of perverts”. The organisers say they have filed a police report.

The raid took place on the night of 18 October at the Bridge yoga studio, during an event called Erotic Primal Games, run by a community known as Play.Primal. Russian Community claimed it carried out the raid together with police. One of the videos the group posted shows about 10 masked people.

Another clip shows a room with inflatable mattresses and a table holding wet wipes and condoms from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

“The participants in this witches’ sabbath planned to copulate in public dressed as animals. It’s no accident that the venue for a demonic orgy turned out to be a yoga studio — the followers of this ancient Eastern practice sheltered their own. After all, they share the same masters: demons,” the group wrote on its Telegram channel.

Play.Primal gave a different account. In a post on its own Telegram channel, the community said around 30 masked people burst into the event and held those inside against their will. Guests were not allowed to use the toilet, and one of the organisers had his phone taken, though it was later returned. One woman had her arm injured while trying to leave the premises and was taken away by ambulance.

Police did not take part in the raid, Play.Primal said, adding that the organisers themselves called officers after the intrusion. Interior Ministry officers reportedly found none of the violations the activists had alleged. Police helped guests leave the venue and took the organisers to a station to file a complaint, the group said. Play.Primal still has questions for law enforcement, it added, since many of the nationalists left the scene.

The morning after the raid, the organisers filed a police complaint over Russian Community’s actions. They also plan to appeal to the prosecutor’s office and to the Interior Ministry’s internal security department, and are preparing a separate complaint over the injury to the guest’s arm.

Play.Primal describes the event as a “bodily game” and “a way of interacting in which a person can temporarily set aside familiar social scripts”. Sexual contact is possible at the events but not required, and one announcement stressed that participants may decline any physical interaction at any moment without explanation.

“We don’t hide the format of our events, we explain the rules in advance and give a safety briefing. And we do not break the law by holding them,” the organisers said. “Neither the name of the event, nor possible nudity, nor the possibility of sexual interaction between consenting adults justifies aggression and vigilantism.”