Webcamming in Russia occupies a legal gray zone. Some studios are subjected to raids, while others β well funded and linked to high-level officials β are generally left alone. The practice of women and some, but not many, men earning cash through sex work transmitted by webcams saw a global increase as countries went into Covid lockdown.
Some 20 and somethings who may previously have worked in public-facing roles turned to webcamming as a means by which to earn and work from home. Some also joined more organized businesses. Petersburg told Sobaka. In general, the worse the situation in the country, the more people are webcamming, and the better things are for us. It is not explicitly criminalized, nor is it legal. Whatever the position in law, the reality on the ground suggests that the law is applied sporadically and very often in a corrupt manner.
To some, raids seem like a fact of life. Online last year. Opening a whole studio is not cheap and requires significant capital. Petersburg studio owner. The studios themselves have a formalized structure: that is, they are not simply a solo model camming from home, paying a percentage to a webcamming streaming platform.
The biggest studios require administrative staff: managers, operators administrators , IT specialists, directors, photographers, stylists, HR departments, and sometimes even accountants. They must have rooms for models β with camera and other equipment.
Their photographs show a swimming pool and ping pong table. Varichenko initially denied his involvement in the business but after Novaya journalists compared its interiors with those of the studios seen on webcams, he finally admitted his involvement and that he had been working in the industry for five years, and then offered to bribe reporters to drop the topic.
