Russian dancer's 'revealing' outfit sparks outrage in Saudi Arabia

Over the weekend, viral footage shot at a Russian circus event held in Riyadh as part of the annual Eid festivities sent Saudi tweeps into a meltdown.

The 4-day event is part of the Saudi Entertainment Authority's calendar for Eid. It sparked intense backlash on Saudi Twitter hours after tweeps uploaded videos capturing female dancers performing regular circus acts at one of the scheduled shows. 

Tweeting via the now-viral hashtag "naked Russian women in Riyadh", thousands attacked the performers, deeming their outfits "revealing" and "inappropriate".

Some Saudi tweeps and news sites said the videos circulating online were fake and spread on social media by Qatari rivals.

However, many have since shut that claim down with evidence that the viral footage was taken by Saudi Snapchat users who were at the event in Riyadh, the kingdom's capital city.

Regardless, many tweeted out in support of the performances, saying that nothing in any of the now-viral videos violated any of the country's rules.

Others just couldn't even with the entire hashtag and were shocked that performance outfits could lead to such intense backlash. 

Here's how the online controversy played out on Twitter:

"Images from the Russian circus performances refute rumors spread by Qatari tweeps." 

"Some are saying this is the video that sparked backlash and others are stating there are doubts over where it was shot!!" 

"I just went into the map on Snapchat and found this, you're the one who's lying." 

"I captured this and other videos from the Snapchat of someone attending the event!" 

"This is a circus costume, how is it revealing? This hashtag made us feel the performers weren't wearing anything at all. And also, you don't want to attend such events, no one is forcing you to. Just let people be."