Merging war and sex in what skeptics said was a smear campaign, a short story has gone on sale on Amazon. The story tells of a porn film crew looking to shoot a video with on-duty soldiers, according to a summary published by blogger Matthew Gault on the Medium. The crew ends up in Donetsk, the stronghold of the eponymous pro-Russian separatist republic in eastern Ukraine, where rebel leader Igor Girkin — aka Strelkov — rapes the cameraman to express his disapproval of their quest, Gault said.
The story is credited to one I. Van Der Woude, an apparent pseudonym based on a name for the disfiguring genetic disorder Van Der Woude syndrome. Strelkov, 43, is a retired officer of Russia's Federal Security Service, a historical re-enactor and a veteran of Bosnian and Transdnestrian conflicts who spearheaded the separatist movement in Donetsk. He has made no public appearances in recent weeks, and in mid-August his allies announced his resignation, which came amid rumors that he had been seriously injured during the outnumbered rebels' slow retreat before the Ukrainian army.
No insurgency representatives had commented on the smut publication as of Monday evening. Gault said the story was so "unsexy" that it was likely not the apolitical work of an honest porn connoisseur, but the latest salvo in the Russian-Ukrainian media war that has accompanied the bloodshed. Contact the author at a. We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution.
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