A young man wearing underwear, a bondage belt and pilot’s cap appears on camera. He gyrates his hips and buttocks to the sound of Benny Benassi’s “Satisfaction” before thrusting along the corridors of a student dormitory.

He dips in and out of rooms, finding scantily-clad students performing tasks to the Satisfaction rhythm – some ironing, some cleaning, others drilling holes in the wall provocatively.

The video, made by first-year students of the Ulyanovsk Aviation Institute, and released last week, quickly became the most talked about topic in Russia.

In fact, it was a remake of a clip made by British army soldiers two years ago. But such details were lost in a predictable and furious response by Russia’s neo-conservative wing.

Within a day of its publication, the National Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) announced it would open an investigation into “this ugly case”.

Under pressure from the regional governor, the rector of the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation, Sergei Krasnov, likened the cadets’ situation to Pussy Riot.

After such an “unforgivable” disgrace to veterans, he said, they could be expelled, perhaps, even, tried under Russia’s controversial anti-homosexual laws. Much of the initial coverage of state TV was negative.

Then something remarkable happened. All over the country, groups began producing their own provocative satisfaction videos in support of the students. They posted them on social media under the hashtag #satisfactionchallenge. It was the start of an impromptu protest that surprised many in its scale and ingenuity.

First to show solidarity were students at the nearby Ryazan Agricultural College. Then students at the Urals Firefighting Academy joined in. Then students at a construction college, and military cadets.

A “group of mothers” also responded. Before long, the challenge was reaching the highest of aesthetic forms and production values. There was a video from a group of young equestrians. Then this from students of a performing arts academy.

Half-naked male cadets from Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Institute dance to the music (Screengrab/Ulyanovsk Aviation Institute)

Arguably the most creative version was this, shot in a swimming pool. The weirdest version, without doubt, was this masterpiece shot by pensioners in a St Petersburg communal apartment.

Traditional Russia was, for a moment, silenced. Then came a backtracking of the official position. State prosecutors made a statement to say there was nothing illegal in what the students did.

State television softened its rhetoric and, live on air, asked Rector Krasnov to soften his. The once moralistic elder relented. There would probably be no expulsions, he conceded, “though each case would be dealt with on an individual basis”. (It was unclear how each student's behaviour differed, of course: all were wearing pretty much the same underwear and/or kinky accessories.)

“You have to remember they were all looking for a signal from above and were trying to guess what Putin would think,” says Marinna Murayeva, a sociologist at the Higher School of Economics. “And they found out that, in reality, few Russians were bothered.”

Russians have an ambiguous approach to sex and sexuality, reflecting in part the changing values of the state. For much of the Soviet Union, sex was a private affair, not for the public space. Famously, in 1986, a Soviet woman on a TV talk show between audiences in the US and USSR declared there to be “no sex in the USSR”. The woman later insisted she had meant there was love instead, but the phrase stuck.

Puritanical values lost out in the new, post-Soviet Russia. But in recent years, conservative and religious wings have led a campaign to bring moralism back to the mainstream. In part, the plan has been co-opted by the Kremlin. In 2013, for example, there was a much-derided clampdown on the LGBT community with an amendment against the so-called “propaganda of non-traditional relationships”.

Last year, online porn was targeted, with several x-rated sites blocked; only some have been re-registered. But it is also true to say the attitudes of state regulators have appeared out of sync with Russian sensibilities, let alone that of its metropolitan youth.

“All of the officials – rector, governor and so on – have been talking about proper and improper behaviour,” says Alexandra ​Arkhipova, an anthropologist at the Russian Presidential Academy. "The problem is that no one knows what they mean. They seem to have been referring to an unwritten code of conduct, but no one can tell you what it is."

It was no accident that the rector referred to Pussy Riot, she says. Their protest inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was a watermark event for Russian morality, she says. It was the moment everything changed: “Everyone knew that from now on you would not be allowed to dance freely, in a church, or in a student dormitory.”

The career of prominent journalist Tutta Larsen has, to a certain degree, reflected moralistic trends in the country at large.

Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Show all 20 1 /20 Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is pictured with a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin aims at a whale with an arbalest to take a piece of its skin for analysis on the Olga Bay, some 240 kilometres north-east of Nakhodka on August 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin plunges into the icy waters of lake Seliger during the celebration of the Epiphany holiday in Russia's Tver region AFP/Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (top) takes part in a judo training session at the "Moscow" sports complex in St. Petersburg, on December 22, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin works out at a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi on August 30, 2015. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin fishes in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (L) and the leader of the Night Wolves biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov (R), also known as the Surgeon, ride motorcycles on August 29, 2011 at a bikers' festival in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia. Putin described leather-clad bikers as brothers and boasted of the "indivisible Russian nation" after roaring into a biking rally on a Harley Davidson. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears glasses as he visits the Technology Park of the Novosibirsk Academic Town in Novosibirsk on February 17, 2012. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin rides a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin holds a pistol during his visit to a newly-built headquarters of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in Moscow, 08 November 2006. ?Some countries are seeking to untie their hands in order to take weapons to outer space, including nuclear weapons,? Putin said at the Chief Military Intelligence Department on Wednesday. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin sits inside a T-90AM tank during a visit to an arms exhibition in the Urals town of Nizhny Tagil on September 9, 2011 Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears a helmet and the uniform of the Renault Formula One team before driving a F1 race car on a special track in Leningrad region outside St. Petersburg on November 7, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin guides a boat during his vacation in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin hunts fish underwater in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is seen at the Russian boxing team training club after casting his vote for the Russian Presidential election, 14 March 2004 in Moscow. Putin coasted to a landslide victory with 69.0 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, according to the first exit poll aired on Russian television moments after voting ended across the country's 11 time zones. AFP/Getty Images Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture inside the Tupolev-160 strategic bomber jet at the Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport, 16 August 2005. President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow for a supersonic flight in a cruise-missile carrying Tupolev-160 bomber jet, the latest in the Russian leader's action-packed public appearances. After a health check, Putin donned a flight suit and took the commander's position in the strategic bomber, which was piloted by Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel in charge of navigation, Russian media reported. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? A picture released on March 6, 2010 shows Vladimir Putin look through binoculars in the Karatash area, near the town of Abakan, during his working trip to Khakassia, on February 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin measuring a polar bear on the island Alexandra Land, part of the Franz Josef Land archipalego in the Arctic Ocean. Putin, better known in the West for his tough-guy image, expressed concern for the fate of Arctic polar bears threatened by climate change. "The polar bear is under threat. Their population is currently only 25,000 individuals," Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin carries a hunting rifle during his trip in Ubsunur Hollow Biosphere Reserve in Tuva Republic in this undated picture released on October 30, 2010 by RIA Novosti news agency. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops – Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin pilots a motorized hang glider while flying with cranes as he takes part in a scientific experiment as part of the "Flight of Hope", which aims to preserve a rare species of - cranes on September 5, 2012. At the helm of a motorized hang glider that the birds have taken as their leader, Putin made three flights - the first to get familiar with the process, and two others with the birds. AFP/Getty

Known to many youngish Russians as the free-talking host of Potselyi Navylet, a racy Russian version of Blind Date, these days she is more likely to be found hosting a show on Russian Orthodox radio. (Larsen insists her show on MTV was misunderstood. “It was a game of jokes and humour, rather than open sexuality,” she told The Independent).

Still, she thinks the reaction to the Ulyanovsk video was “excessive” as no-one broke the law or was hurt and the authorities should have stayed out of the argument.

“For 70 years we had no sex, and now we lead the planet in the number of abortions, abandoned children, domestic violence and AIDS infections," she says. "I think the gatekeepers of morality should get on to more serious affairs than boys dancing in their underpants.”

Several prominent Russian liberals have taken to social media to declare the apparent flashmob victory as a “protest awakening”. Some publications have even talked about beginning of a revolution – sexual or otherwise.

For sociologist Murayeva, such claims are exaggerated. “I’m from a military family and have taught in similar military academies,” she says. “These places are often hypersexualised, and pranks are common. The flashmob reaction was more about part of Russia sticking up for the young kids; it might have been different had they been older.”

The fathers and sons dilemma is, however, alive and well in Russia, says Arkhipova. The difference today is that it is the parents quarrelling with their children, rather than vice-versa.

“The young generation knows that it is living in a prefigurative, digital culture. By that, I mean knowledge is passed from children to their parents,” says Arkhipova. Russia's older generations want to stay in their own world and teach their skills and values to their children: "This is the source of the tensions, the moralistic wave and of the senseless number programmes aimed at morally educating young Russians.”