now and then

Fashion 2013. Paris

Victoria and Albert Museum

now and then

 Fashion 2013


Victoria and Albert Museum

in a Russian sauna

I'm sure Vladimir Putin, the famously tough Russian president, would be horrified to discover that the bare-chested photos of him shooting, fishing and riding are celebrated as homoerotic classics on gay websites in the West.

I feel very vulnerable sitting here naked except for a towel. Time, I judge, to steer the conversation to less sensitive subjects - the money spent on the Olympics at Sochi, corruption in the Russian state.

After a few minutes the hunters begin to relax again. What happens next with the sauna, I ask.

"Lie there," Georgy orders me. I do as I'm told, lying on the bench on my front.

I feel a hand hitch up my towel exposing my thighs. There is a rustle as the birch twigs are lifted from the boiling water and a faintly ominous hiss as - and I am guessing here because my eyes were firmly shut - he presses them onto the hot rocks balanced on the drum of the sauna.

There is a lovely woody smell from the boiling leaves. I gasp as he brings the scalding birch branches down on my back. He does it gently. This is not a whipping but a light beating and I have to admit it is very pleasant.