Russian women jailed for twerking in front of World War 2 memorial

Russia: A video shows a group of Russian women performing a twerk in front of a war memorial in an act which landed them in jail.

Six of the group were prosecuted for performing the dance at the site of the World War Two memorial - which has revered status in Russia.

Three of the women were jailed for between ten and fifteen days for petty hooliganism.

Two others were fined, the Independent reports - while a sixth was underage, so was not charged.

The girl's mother was instead accused of failing to “carry out measures to ensure the proper physical, intellectual, psychological, spiritual and moral development of the child".

The Malaya Zemlya memorial commemorates a battle to free the Russian city of Novorossiysk from the invading Bundeswehr in 1943.

World War Two memorials have enormous significance for Russians after the then Soviet Union suffered as many as 20 million deaths during the conflict.

The women had posted the twerking footage to Youtube in a bid to recruit people to their dance school.

Viktoriya Dikaya, from Novorossiysk's education department, said: “We condemn these women. Every inch of this land is covered in blood. It is inappropriate”.

Russia has clamped down on twerking in recent years as the state has become increasingly intolerant of behaviour it deems as 'immoral.'