The original source of the photos is unknown but it's reported that the Kremlin has been trying to cover up the embarrassing leaked pictures which emerged online just as Lazarev and fellow competing nations headed into the 2016 Eurovision Grand Final.
The UK's Sun quotes an anonymous source claiming that Russian officials hired computer experts in an attempt to wipe all trace of the photo, which at first glance appears to be some kind of fetish pornography, from the internet.
The Russian Eurovision camp however has dismissed claims of a secret porn past, playing down the pictures by stating that they were actually part of an ANTI-domestic violence campaign.
"We would like to underline that this photo shoot was made by a famous Russian photographer against domestic violence," a spokesperson for Lazarev told the UK's Metro.
"Several Russian stars had similar artistic photo shooting for the exhibition ‘Stars against violence and rudeness’ that took place in 31/10/2008 and all money collected from the sales of these portraits went to the victims of the above mentioned cases."
Nonetheless, British tabloids were keen to paint the photo as an embarrassing leak that would jeopardise Russia's Eurovision chances.
“The picture of the girl handcuffed was supposed to be arty and highlight domestic violence issues but it looks like they are glamorising it," the Sun quotes an anonymous source as saying.
“Officials don’t want this photo getting out because it looks so weird and creepy and could scupper their bid.
“Russia has spent an absolute fortune on Sergey, it is really desperate to win this year."
Even if the photos are perfectly innocuous, their emergence is just the latest in a series of unfortunate mishaps for Lazarev and the Russian camp in their road to Eurovision.
The former-gymnast turned popstar who is a best-selling huge star in his home country shocked fans when he suddenly fainted mid-performance while playing a major gig in St Petersburg just two weeks out from Eurovision.
In dress rehearsals Lazarev took another tumble - literally - when he fell off his elaborate moving set.
In spite of the various mishaps though, Russia remained a firm favourite in the international betting odds, right up until the day before, where Lazarev ranked in first place, just ahead of our own Dami Im.
Watch Lazarev's performance in Semi Final 1 below:
