Russian outrage at Sergei's blue films

Sergei Pryanishnikov presses 'play' on his massive deck of video players and grins gleefully. Before him unfolds a typical scene from his pornography empire that has enraged many Russians. A group of St Petersburgers, dressed for a wedding, approach one of the most famous monuments in Russia, that of Peter the Great. They pass around champagne then casually take off their clothes and proceed to have an orgy.

'I approached the policemen on patrol,' the porn producer recalls. 'They were not that smart and I told them it was two rich kids' first night of marriage and that they wanted to spend it there on the monument.'

It only cost $200 to have the police herd passers-by away. 'The filming took three hours. People were shouting good wishes from the restaurant nearby.'

But Pryanishnikov's exploits have repeatedly fallen foul of the St Petersburg police and a criminal investigation against him is now in its fourth year. Religious Russians have taken offence at the use of a church as a backdrop to another scene. In June the Ministry of Culture wrote to him to object about his use of the Communist anthem, the 'Internationale', during one of his shoots, complaining that it 'might offend that part of the people who share Communist ideals'.

But this week he will take a case to the court of appeal arguing his right to make pornography and sell it to those who want to buy it, and suing the Ministry of Culture for banning some of his films. The case is largely symbolic - only $200 in damages is being sought.

Pryanishnikov, who boasts sales of 100,000 video cassettes a month, at as little as £3 each, is using the new court case to present himself as a champion of freedom of speech.

'In some ways, this is a challenge to hypocrisy,' he said from a chaotic office crammed with tapes and boxes of DVDs, each scrawled upon in ballpoint pen. 'In Brezhnev's time, people were thinking freely and exchanging opinions, but only in the privacy of their kitchens. We have brought sex to the streets and are now speaking freely about it.'

Pryanishnikov thinks his work is similar to that of Larry Flint, the American porn king who defended his business empire as part of his First Amendment right under the US Constitution. 'We want to legalise this business and bring it to life.'

He bemoans the current law which prohibits the 'illegal production of pornography', implying that its legal production is permitted, but that it also allows local officials to fine pornographers at will. Court battles for a clarification of this law have run for the past four years.

'I don't know how the process will end,' he said. 'As they say, our legal system is the most human, but not the most just. I have one judgment from the courts that says they agree with all my arguments, but cannot accept them. I want everyone to be open about this. The police are next door and the vice squad across the street.'

He complains that a recent raid cost him 300 tapes, which the police claim have been destroyed. He is suing them to recover the cost.

Future projects remain culturally ambitious. In the next month he plans a series of films shot around the streets of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's St Petersburg. 'It is still at the conceptual stage, but Dostoyevsky's Petersburg is not one of beautiful palaces. We will show the real town he knew.'

Another project is to film Pushkin's Yevgeny Onegin around St Petersburg's monuments. Previous films have taken a similarly iconoclastic approach to Russia's heritage - Party Members involved the unorthodox use of a bust of Lenin.

Pryanishnikov tries to dispel the exploitative image of porn moguls by insisting that his performers are well paid by local standards and work in their free time. Vadim, one of his stars, has a day job at the Hermitage museum.

'They are not actors,' he said. 'We find them in the streets then teach them what to do.'