Reader Question: Why did you post a story about stripping on Worthy News?

Shalom everyone,

Yesterday, there was an article in the UK Telegraph entitled, “Girls urged to strip to support Vladimir Putin as President” which I ran, however we had some people wonder why we would run such an article.  So I thought I would explain my reasoning behind it.

First of all, it was only a text article and absent of any kind of photography that would be a stumbling block for a believer. [Editor’s note: From the time we posted it, they’ve added a video and thus we removed it when this took place!]

I debated whether or not to run the story, but as I prayed about it, all I could think about was the Russian women stuck in brothels in Tel Aviv.  Most people are completely oblivious to the sex trade industry, and until there’s real respect toward women starting from the heads of government, nothing will ever change.   When heads of state endorse such behavior, it’s a reflection of the direction a country is heading.

This is a portion of a report about the exploitation of Russian women by the mafia in Israel.

The non-profit Israel Women’s Network estimates that 70% of prostituted women  in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center, come from the former Soviet republics, and that about 1,000 women are brought into Israel illegally each year. At any one time, as many as 100 women may be awaiting deportation in Neve Tirza women’s prison near Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport, a prison spokeswoman said. (Elisabeth Eaves, “Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves”, Reuters, 23 August 1998)

The Russian mafia has moved into Israel to profit from trafficking and prostitution. Police in Israel have been keeping around 30 organized key crime suspects under surveillance. (Kevin Connolly, “How Russia’s mafia is taking over Israel’s underworld,” BBC, 3 April 1998)

And this is the shocker for many, but prostitution in Israel is LEGAL, but organized prostitution in the form of brothels is prohibited.  –Wikipedia

So when I saw this article in the UK Telegraph about women encouraged to “strip” for Putin, I thought about a possible connection between Putin and the Russian mafia.  The women that would be ‘encouraged’ to do so, would probably be those already connected in some way to the sexual trade industry — which is run by the Russian mafia.  Then it’s plausible that this article is just touching the tip of the iceberg of the corruption within the Russian government.

And so this is why I decided to run the story.

Until next time…