A Communist Party lawmaker in Russia’s lower-house State Duma is facing allegations that he invited a sex worker to his office after Kremlin-linked media released a video Friday purportedly showing him receiving oral sex from a woman.
In the video circulated by the Telegram news channel Shot, a man who appears to resemble 36-year-old Duma member Denis Parfenov enters an office with a woman, who then allegedly begins to perform oral sex on him.
Parfenov, who criticized Russia’s recent regional elections, has not commented on the leaked footage. The lawmaker also recently voiced opposition to apparent government efforts to slow YouTube loading speeds.
The Communist Party’s central committee responded to the allegations against Parfenov by suggesting the alleged sex tape might have been AI-generated.
Party spokesman Alexander Yushchenko told the RTVI broadcaster that the video appeared to be too heavily doctored to conclusively identify Parfenov. “The video is made up of some kind of clips,” he said, adding that the woman in the video has the right to sue for defamation.
Sota, a news outlet linked to exiled anti-Kremlin billionaire Leonid Nevzlin, said it contacted the sex worker shown in the video, with her confirming her visit to the State Duma. She said she was accompanied by an unidentified man, but declined to share further details.
Soliciting a prostitute is an administrative offense in Russia and a breach of the State Duma’s code of conduct.
Leaked sex tapes and other compromising materials have been used in Russia since the 1990s to damage the reputations and careers of political figures.
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