Diana Shurygina
Personality Image Occupation: blogger[1] Date of birth: June 12, 1999[2] Twitter: shurygina_99 YouTube: UC_VsAHBXS2NtvEJ4na_hX9A (verified) VKontakte: id372549115 (no verification)
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Let them say - In the midst of a party.
Issue dated January 31, 2017 ( Part 1
) - 13 million views
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Let them say - Diana Shurygina is shocked by the release of Sergei Semenov. Issue dated January 15, 2018
Diana Shurygina
(Ulyanovsk) - a media person presented in the media as a victim of rape that occurred after she drank a little vodka (“on the bottom”) at a party. She participated in the TV show “Let Them Talk” (shown on January 31, 2020), where she said that she was raped by Sergei Semyonov. Diana has a sister, and her father works as a driver. The topic aroused such interest that 4 more programs with her participation were shown (February 20 and 21, and then March 6 and 7). The video with the release of “Let Them Talk” dated January 31 on the official channel of the program received 13 million views (millions of views for copies of the video as well). At the time of the scandal, she was studying in college, and as of July 2020, in her own words, she works as a waitress in a coffee shop.[3]
There is a possibility that these data are not real: at first she appeared in the press as Diana S., the media also named a different surname of her mother, stated that Diana was already 18, and indicated a different surname of her father.[4] There is a common conspiracy theory on the Internet that the whole rape story is a fake for the sake of PR, and that Diana could have been portrayed in the studio by a hired actress.[5]
[edit] Background
The story of the rape of a certain Diana S. in Ulyanovsk was told in December 2020 by the publication Life.ru, while in the title of the article the word “raped” was placed in quotation marks.[6]
A petition was posted on the website democrator.ru demanding that the sentence of Sergei Semenov, convicted of raping Diana, be reviewed. The petition was signed by more than 300 thousand people.[7] It was in the petition that photographs of Diana were presented to the general public.
The story was continued on Channel One in “Let Them Talk.” According to information presented on the television program, the details of the story look like this.
On April 1, 2020, 16-year-old Diana Shurygina went to the police, accusing 20-year-old Sergei Semyonov of rape committed the day before. According to the girl, intercourse took place at the birthday party of Sergei’s friend, where Diana was invited by her friend. Before this, the young people did not know each other. Diana did not hide the fact that she was drunk, but claimed that Sergei used physical force against her. The court found that Semyonov knew that Shurygina was a minor and understood that she did not want to have sexual contact with him (the fact that the victim is a minor affects the degree of responsibility for rape). In December 2020, Semenov was sentenced to eight years in a maximum security colony under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - 131st (“Rape”) and 132nd (“Violent acts of a sexual nature”), as is usually stated based on the fact that Sergei is still did not know about Diana's minority. After an appeal, the term was reduced to three years and three months in a general regime colony (usually the media claim that it was due to the fact that Sergei thought that Diana, according to her, was already 18 years old).
Immediately after the verdict was announced, support groups for both Diana and Sergei appeared on VKontakte. Supporters of the latter believed that the court’s decision was unfair, and the girl’s behavior was undignified and uncharacteristic for a rape victim: both before and after that party, videos appeared on the Internet in which Diana was having fun in company and drinking alcoholic beverages. According to Sergei’s supporters, during the celebration the girl lied to those present that she was already 18 years old, despite the fact that one of the aggravating circumstances of the case was her minority.
Semyonov’s supporters argued that the sex was consensual, and the abrasions and bruises on Shurygina’s body were the result of a conflict with her father, who was picking her up from the party. The latter is confirmed by eyewitnesses. Among them is Alexander Rukhlin, who was in the room with Diana after Sergei left and, according to the latter’s sister Ekaterina Semyonova, did not see signs of beatings on the girl’s body and face. Initially, Rukhlin was also a suspect in the case (according to Shurygina, they had sexual intercourse after Sergei left the room), but the investigation stopped criminal prosecution against him due to the lack of corpus delicti.
The Ulyanovsk website also wrote [8], and Komsomolskaya Pravda confirmed that this is already the second criminal case due to an intimate relationship with Diana: some time ago, a certain Vlad Troshin, who had reached the age of 18, was convicted of sex with her, but Diana was not then was 16. Everything happened by mutual consent, but since the girl did not reach the “age of consent,” her boyfriend ended up receiving a year of probation.[9]
Diana Shurygina now
In January 2020, Sergei Semenov, convicted of raping Diana Shurygina, was released from prison on parole (parole). The young man told the press that during this time he had matured and become smarter, in particular, he would no longer get involved with girls like Shurygina, he intended to get a higher education at another university and get a job.
In June 2020, in connection with Sergei Semenov’s move to Moscow, a thematic issue of “Live Broadcast” was released with Andrei Malakhov, in which Diana’s friend and colleague Sasha Chest, who helps her with the creation of songs, said that Shurygina had an abortion from her husband, who, according to him According to him, he doesn’t love Diana at all, but is promoting himself on her name.
[edit] Success story
Diana became famous thanks to the TV show “Let Them Talk,” where the parents of the convicted man turned for help. On the evening of January 31, 2017, Channel One aired an episode of this talk show dedicated to the incident. According to the mother of the convict, the girl’s father allegedly demanded money from Sergei’s family for dropping the criminal case. During the show, Diana behaved strangely: she sometimes cried, sometimes laughed and insulted other participants in the show.
This episode became very popular (in 2 weeks - 9 million views on the Internet, despite the fact that the total duration of the episode was 50 minutes). Numerous jokes about Diana and quotes from the program began to spread across social networks. The girl became the most talked about media person on the Runet. Many cancer public pages promptly added a mention of Shurygina to the title and focused on jokes about her.[10][11] At the same time, feminists woke up: on their resources, Diana was presented in the light of an innocent victim, Sergei - in the role of a rapist who took advantage of the girl’s helpless state, and the public reaction was assessed as bullying, victim blaming and a manifestation of a culture of violence.
The second and third episodes of the program “Let Them Talk” were released on February 20 and 21, and they also discussed the girl’s popularity on the Internet. The Internet responded with jokes about Malakhov and parodies of talk shows. The fourth and fifth episodes aired on March 6 and 7, on the eve of Women's Day.
Diana was shown again on Channel One on August 31, 2020, in Dmitry Shepelev’s show “Actually,” where a lie detector was used.
Guide to the history of Diana Shurygina. What happened, who is to blame and why is everyone discussing it?
17-year-old Diana Shurygina from Ulyanovsk became the most discussed and criticized character in February at the suggestion of Andrei Malakhov, Channel One and the sister of 21-year-old Sergei Semyonov, who ended up in a colony after accusing a girl of rape. The Shurygin family complains of threats and bullying, but continues to appear on the TV channel. Medialeaks tells the full story of the conflict between two families, which has become a major national scandal and is not going to end.
What's happened
The incident itself, which became the cause of a criminal case and a national scandal, occurred on March 31, 2020 in Ulyanovsk. A group of young people gathered in a cottage to celebrate a birthday, after which 16-year-old Diana Shurygina went to the police, accusing 21-year-old student Sergei Semyonov of rape.
There were several controversial points. According to Sergei and his friends, Diana told everyone that she was already 18 years old. The girl herself says that she honestly and openly stated her real age.
Both parties admit that they drank alcohol, but Diana claims that Sergei used physical force against her and did not respond to requests to stop his actions. According to representatives of the Shurygin family, there were traces on the girl’s body and this is confirmed by the results of the examination included in the case.
Read on Medialeaks The girl did the impossible, making her 80-year-old granny twice as young. But it's not magic - it only requires cosmetics
Some party participants say that the bruise on Diana’s face was left by an angry father who came to pick up his daughter from the cottage, but the girl assures that witnesses began to sharply change their testimony and point to the father for selfish reasons.
In addition, Diana said that that night she was raped by another young man, Alexander Rukhlin. At first he was accused in the case, but then became a witness when investigators came to the conclusion that there was no corpus delicti. Now he serves in the army. On the air of “Let Them Talk,” Diana explained this by saying that he stopped his actions when she asked for it.
In December 2020, the court found Semyonov guilty under two articles of the Criminal Code - 131st (“Rape”) and 132nd (“Violent acts of a sexual nature”), sentencing him to eight years in a maximum security colony. This was the reason for the first wave of interest in this matter. After an appeal, the term was reduced to three years and three months in a general regime colony.
Sergei Semenov's support group
Immediately after the verdict in December, a large-scale movement in support of Sergei Semyonov arose on the Internet. His supporters believe that there was no rape, the sex was consensual, and Shurygina made up all the accusations. Now the largest group in support of the guy on VKontakte has more than 100 thousand subscribers.
Ekaterina Semyonova, Sergei’s sister, played a significant role in this story. On December 12, she published a post in which she outlined her version of events and called for drawing as much attention as possible to this story. As Catherine stated, “during the party, Diana drank a lot of alcohol and pestered everyone with simple hints about sex,” and then slept with two guys. Semyonova’s sister pointed out that Shurygina could hardly have engaged in voluntary sexual intercourse immediately after the rape.
#brother#?
Publication from Ekaterina Semyonova (@es1607) Jul 1 2020 at 1:06 PDT
She also accused Diana’s father, Sergei Shurygin, of allegedly demanding 1 million rubles from the Semenov family in order to hush up the matter. Another argument of Catherine in favor of the version of Sergei’s innocence was Diana’s allegedly “rubbish lifestyle” in contrast to the exemplary behavior of her brother, as well as the rape charges brought by Shurygina against another guy some time ago.
Moreover, there is a video and photo showing Diana’s cheeky and joyful behavior after the rape, which she herself posted on social networks. It is clearly visible that the victim is not in a depressed state. There are correspondence between Diana and other guys, where she talks about her sexual fantasies and vivid experiences of sexual life. The family lives in a hostel and has little income. Her mother gave birth to Diana at the age of 15. For some reason my father was not imprisoned.
Semyonov’s friend Timur Minibaev created a petition addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the presidential commissioner, the courts of general jurisdiction and the leader of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The text is completely identical to the appeal of Sergei’s sister; at the time of writing, about 380 thousand people supported the petition.
In groups of Semyonov’s supporters, participants collect compromising information about Shurygina; some believe that she deliberately scams guys for sex in order to then extort money from them. Sergei's supporters send their photographs with words of support. On February 21, a rally was even held in Ulyanovsk for his release.
Diana also has support groups, but they are not so numerous: now the largest of them consists of 27 thousand people.
“You came in a miniskirt!”
This story became truly national after the first episode of Andrei Malakhov’s program “Let Them Talk,” aired on January 31, 2020. Diana and her father came to the studio, despite the fact that almost all the viewers were opposed to them and even the presenter suggested Shurygina’s guilt.
During the broadcast, Sergei’s mother described him as an exemplary young man, even mentioning that as a child he allegedly wanted to become a priest. Diana entered the studio to the disapproving roar of the audience; she was blamed for her confident appearance and smiles, although when describing the events of that night, her voice began to clearly tremble.
Another argument against Shurygina was a video where the girl was riding in a car with friends and behaved cheekily on camera. At first, Andrei Malakhov stated that it was filmed a few days after the rape, but it turned out that several months passed between these events. During the broadcast, this recording was played several times, and subsequently it became one of the significant arguments of Shurygina’s critics, who stated that a rape victim should behave differently.
The audience attacked Diana with questions, not allowing her to finish, they started screaming, laughed at her words, called her an actress, cited stories from their own experience, and blamed her for the fact that the girl “broke the guy’s life.” They criticized her behavior, blamed her parents for poor upbringing and stated that even if rape had taken place, Shurygina herself “provoked” it. Only one of the studio guests took Diana’s side and stated that her lifestyle did not give anyone the right to rape her. Here are some examples of accusatory remarks:
So this is how your life is? Do you like living like this? The man was given eight years! He will lose his psyche there, he will lose himself as a person, and now you are sitting on the couch and everything is fine with you.
You are defending a child who was raised in a dysfunctional family, born to his mother at the age of 15. Is that so, Diana? Did your mother give birth to you when you were 15? He skips school, spends all nights in nightclubs, drinking alcohol, dresses lewdly, and behaves inappropriately. You yourself provoke young people. This is a young professional!
Diana, [this is all] because you went for a walk, because you didn’t control yourself, you wanted to seduce the boy and get good sex at night. In the morning you felt ashamed, you came to your friends all so made up. And when your father, a normal guy, saw you all like this and slapped you in the face, you decided to blame that kid. And this behavior of yours proves that you really are like that.
She just looks very different from the girl who was once raped. You are 17 years old, at 15 you are conducting dubious correspondence about the lack of sex, at 16 you, a man, let her go to dubious parties, where she drinks alcohol like grown men. I am 20 years old. If you post such rubbish online, then don’t be surprised at the attitude of young people towards you. You sit and pretend to be an actress. You came in a miniskirt! You could have at least come here normally. You sit and laugh, and the guy will rot in prison because of you.
I don’t understand what kind of rape we are talking about if a girl leads such a lifestyle. I’m not making excuses for the young man, but, you understand, two boxes of vodka. They deliberately gathered to get drunk and God knows what to do. It seems to me that he certainly does not deserve such punishment, he was drunk. Therefore, what should you take from a drunk person? The blame here is shared. Baby, you are behaving indecently.
The position of the Shurygin family is as follows: the court twice found Sergei guilty of rape, his confession is in the case, and his daughter’s behavior, whatever it may be, does not give the right to rape her.
On the bottom
The release turned out to be as resonant as possible: by this time, the recording on YouTube had been viewed almost 13 million times. Immediately after the release of the program, Diana Shurygina became a star on the Internet. Social networks were filled with fake pages, memes with her participation, the phrase “at the bottom” and offensive comments; popular bloggers devoted their issues to criticism of Diana.
The creators of humorous public pages rename them in honor of Shurygina, taking advantage of her moment of glory. The girl’s surname was changed to “Shkurygina”, and threats were poured into her address. Here are typical wishes addressed to Diana from strangers.
Members of the Shurygin family, who also have a younger daughter, began to complain about bullying in real life. Later they said that they had to quit their jobs and move, Diana’s father had his car tires punctured, and his mother got a black eye from a stranger on the street.
Some companies thought it was a good idea to use the image of a minor victim of violence in advertising. The Life TV channel took her photo to advertise the group on VKontakte, and Burger King used a drawn image to advertise the “Second Big King for free” promotion.
Continuation of the show
Despite the negative effect on the Shurygins from the first episode of the show, Diana and her family starred in two more episodes. In the second episode, released on February 20, the girl entered the studio in tears and complained of bullying. After criticism of her dramatic appearance in the first episode, she dressed more modestly, did not do her hair and chose less flashy makeup. She later explained that for the first issue she was dressed and painted by stylists, and for the next two she chose the style herself.
In the first episode, only the father was filmed; in the next two, Diana’s mother also took part. Channel One filmed an interview with Semyonov and showed it in the studio, calling the episode “Confrontation with the rapist” (after the night in the cottage, Diana and Sergei never saw each other). The guy declared his innocence and accused the girl of ruining his life.
Shurygina often began to cry, forcing Malakhov to show more concern for her, but the general intonation of the program remained the same: no one believes in the fact of rape, everyone calls on her to come to her senses and “not ruin the guy’s life,” to think about her behavior.
The third episode of the program was released on February 21, but this is not the end - Diana herself has just reported on the completion of filming two more episodes. Apparently, she will return in a more confident image.
Life after the broadcast
Diana herself, after the attention that fell on her, mostly negative, continues to post photos on Instagram and answers questions from her fans. On February 24, she published a video making fun of her own “on the bottom” line, which became a meme, with answers to some questions.
In support groups, Shurygina’s fans note her appearance, call her persistent and brave, thank her for raising the topic of violence, urging her not to pay attention to critics. They write to her that the authors of the program deliberately presented her as promiscuous for the sake of ratings, and presented Sergei as too modest, citing as an argument the guy’s page on the Ask.fm service (his real VKontakte account is blocked), where friends directly call Semyonov a “womanizer.”
As it turned out, Shurygina’s support could become a hindrance to her reputation. On February 26, popular bloggers, including Ivangay and Maryana Ro, invited Diana to a Mail.ru charity event and published photos with her. They were later forced to remove them due to an outpouring of negative comments.
This story, like the dominance of memes about Shurygina, has already tired many. Bloggers and journalists put forward versions of why it still hasn’t subsided - from someone’s desire to make money to people’s natural attention to other people’s personal lives.
[edit] Brand commercialization
Using Shurygina’s image in vaping
On February 16, 2020, an advertising poster dedicated to the ongoing promotion appeared in the official public page of the fast food chain Burger King. The schematically depicted girl on this poster clearly reveals Diana Shurygina. The ad received controversy online and was soon removed.[12][13][11] It should be noted that this is not the first case of viral advertising of Burger King on the verge of provocation: the same network was one of the first to use the Russiano meme.
On March 13, 2020, in Yekaterinburg, a line of vaping liquids “Shurygina Clouds” went on sale, in which there are three flavors: blackberry-grapefruit liqueur “On the Bottom”, blueberry with kiwi “In the Height of the Party” and banana with tobacco “Eight Years of the Planer”.[ 14] Later, in a similar vein, a line of liquids was announced in honor of Navalny.[15]
[edit] The Shurygina case
At the age of 16, Diana Shurygina became a victim of a rapist on the night of April 1, 2020[4]. The crime was committed at a party in a rented cottage, where Diana was invited by a friend. According to the prosecution, confirmed by the court, 20-year-old Sergei Semenov, whom the girl saw for the first time that night, locked himself in one of the rooms with her, and then beat and raped the girl. Sergei Semyonov himself and his supporters insist that there was no rape. The continuation of this story has become the subject of discussion throughout Russia: some citizens refuse to consider Diana a victim.
[edit] Social networks
- Old userpic on YouTube
- Another userpic
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A few answers at the bottom
