Ukraine crisis: Glamorous Russian influencer targeted by Kremlin under new censorship law
- Known on Instagram as Belonika, until recently she mainly posted pictures of elegant locations and clothes with Prada, Chanel and Louis Vuitton accessories
- Recently she posted: ‘I don’t consider the Ukrainian people as my enemy. I consider them as brothers and sisters’, and described Putin as ‘a tired of life man’
Veronika Belotserkovskaya, an influencer best known in Russia for glamorous Instagram posts on her life and cooking classes, has become one of the first targets of the country’s draconian new legislation that makes criticism of the war in Ukraine punishable by as many as 15 years in jail.
An unlikely candidate for the wrath of President Vladimir Putin’s government, the influencer known on Instagram as Belonika, had until recently mostly posted pictures of her glitzy lifestyle, featuring elegant locations and clothes, Prada, Chanel and Louis Vuitton accessories, flower bouquets, animals and cooking.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, her posts turned political, often searing in their opposition to the war and to Putin. In one post she is dressed in a blue dress in front of a yellow door in a not-so-subtle nod at the Ukrainian flag. In a bolder post, she wrote, “I don’t consider the Ukrainian people as my enemy. I consider them as brothers and sisters. I consider this ‘special operation’ an invasive WAR against a sovereign state.” In others she describes Putin as “a tired of life man,” and his recent TV appearances “spooky.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that Belotserkovskaya’s posts “discredited” government authorities and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
They are “deliberate false information about the use of armed forces by the Russian Federation for the destruction of cities and against Ukrainian civilian population, including children, during the special military operation on Ukrainian government territory,” the committee said.
