Promoter Fined For Gaga Antics

Russian promoter Evgueny Finkelstein has been fined 20,000 rubles ($614) for “failing to protect children from information that could harm their health and development” — in this case, a Lady Gaga concert.

Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

MTV VMAs at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Gaga is said to have imitated sexual intercourse between women and advocated the consumption of alcohol.

The Planeta Plus chief, who is based in St. Petersburg, intends to appeal the verdict handed down Nov. 15.

“We don’t agree with this verdict because no one listened to us,” he told television network NTV-Petersburg. “Because of these laws against gay propaganda adopted here, because of these cheap publicity tricks, all viewers suffer.”

Although the court case came as a result of a complaint from local resident Nadezhda Petrova, who took her 13-year-old daughter to Lady Gaga’s December show at St. Petersburg’s SKK Arena, the right-wing Labour Union of Russian Citizens is believed to be behind the action.

A Labour Union spokesman told online newspaper Gazeta.ru that Petrova is considering further action.

Judge Olga Rositskaya’s ruling allows the complainant to sue Planeta Plus for millions of rubles in damages for psychic trauma she and her daughter suffered.

“Just recently, Peter Gabriel, who has never performed in Russia, refused to come because of this law and because he supported Pussy Riot,” Finkelstein told Russian media.

In 2012, Madonna faced legal action after her show in St. Petersburg, but the court tossed the suit.