Russia - Pornography

(13 Jun 1994) Story No. 4 MAYOR CRACKS THE WHIP AGAINST EROTICA Moscow, Russia natsot Duration: Moscow’s politically-ambitious mayor has moved to limit sales of pornographic magazines and other erotic materials in the Russian capital. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has banned the sale of erotica on the street and in subway and train stations, a common practice in the suddenly cosmopolitan capital. Although the new law limits locations where erotica can be sold, it lets bureaucrats in Moscow’s 30 sub-divisions decide on venues within their districts, leaving the door open for the kind of corruption that pervades virtually every sphere of commerce in the bustling city. Foreign magazines defined as erotica will need special permission from the Russian government before they can be sold in Moscow at all. Children under 16 are forbidden from either buying or looking at erotic publications. Pornography was long forbidden in the Soviet Union, but with former Soviet leader Mi