It took a trip to the front lines for Russian pop star Filipp Kirkorov to get back in the good graces of President Vladimir Putin after Kremlin conservatives were outraged by his appearance at a “nearly naked” party at a Moscow nightclub.

In mid-December, the singer and other Russian celebrities sparked a scandal by appearing at the party wearing only “lingerie, mesh and leather,” according to media reports. Despite a public apology, Mr. Kirkorov was banned from state-controlled TV in Russia.

Mr. Kirkorov is a panelist on the show “Maski,” the Russian version of America’s “The Masked Singer” game show. “Maski” airs on the state-controlled broadcaster NTV and is reportedly the highest-rated entertainment program in Russia.

Influential bloggers criticized Mr. Kirkorov and other partygoers for “flaunting their wealth and debauchery during wartime.”

“The Kremlin almost certainly intentionally amplified and exploited the scandal, seeking to portray a contrast between Russians ‘patriotically’ supporting the war effort and a hedonistic ‘Westernized’ metropolitan elite,” British officials said Monday. “One attendee was jailed, fined under so-called ‘LGBT propaganda’ laws and served with a summons to a military conscription office.”

Mr. Kirkorov traveled to Donetsk in occupied Ukraine two months after the scandal broke. He performed for Russian troops and promised to help pay for prosthetic limbs for wounded soldiers. His redemption tour apparently worked because he returned to the airwaves less than a week later, The Moscow Times said.

The aftermath of the party scandal demonstrates the pervasive presence of the war in Russians’ lives, British military intelligence officials said this week in their latest assessment of the battlefield conditions in Ukraine.

“Public officials in Russia continue to face substantial pressure to display overt support for the war in Ukraine,” they said.

• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.