Putin’s Propagandists Scramble to Respond to Celeb Critic

IN THE MIDST OF THIS SIMMERING TURMOIL, an unexpected would-be voice of the people has emerged: Victoria Bonya, а 46-year-old fitness and beauty blogger and former Russian TV personality who now lives in Monaco. I wrote last month about Bonya’s Instagram video clip denouncing the slaughter of supposedly infected cows in Siberia (and also taking a swipe at the internet shutdowns). Recently, she has upped the ante with an Instagram video billed as “an appeal to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin from all Russians who care.” It opened with a remarkable statement:

Vladimir Vladimirovich, people are afraid of you. The common people are afraid of you. Bloggers and artists are afraid of you. Governors are afraid of you. But you are the president of our country. It seems to me that we should not be afraid. . . . I think there is a great, thick wall between you and the people.

Bonya then took it upon herself to report to Putin about several problems on which she believed he was not being adequately informed: recent floods in Dagestan, oil spills in the southern Anapa Bay (this one apparently unrelated to Ukrainian drones), the cow slaughter in Siberia, and the internet blockings. To some extent, this is a standard “good tsar, bad boyars” line, but with a key twist: The boyars aren’t keeping the tsar in the dark because they’re bad but because they’re scared to tell him the truth. So maybe the tsar isn’t so good after all.

Of course, it’s still a hilariously absurd assessment of the actual situation in Russia. There is, of course, no mention of the war in Ukraine. And it’s hard not to crack up when Bonya breathlessly declares, “One gets the feeling that we don’t live in a free country anymore, but in some sort of banned country.” Um, yes, where have you been? It’s like the people just now discovering in 2026 that Trump is an egotistical narcissist with no moral center.

But guess what: Whatever one thinks of her intellect or integrity, Bonya has an impact. Her celebrity goes back to a year-long stint on Russia’s biggest reality show, House 2, in 2006–07. She still has some 13 million Instagram followers—some presumably expatriates, but most of them living in Russia and cheerfully defying the Instagram ban. Indeed, her appeal to Putin had 30 million views in one week. (Putin’s annual news conference at the end of last year was viewed live by 6.7 million; obviously, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison since at least some people presumably watched Putin recorded, but even so, the numbers put Bonya’s reach in some perspective.)Continue reading…