Theft, mistresses, and U.S. passports: The double lives of the Russian MPs building a “digital GULAG” while preaching “traditional values”
Russian lawmakers are advancing widely unpopular nationwide restrictions on messaging and social media platforms, framing their crackdowns against Telegram, YouTube, Roblox and other services as a defense of “traditional family values” and Russian sovereignty. However, The Insider has discovered that several MPs on the State Duma’s information policy committee openly flout the values they claim to promote, using undeclared income to buy apartments for their mistresses and arranging for their children to secure U.S. birthright citizenship. Most members of the committee maintain undisclosed business interests, with some seeking to profit from Russia’s burgeoning “digital GULAG” by pitching the authorities their own alternatives to foreign messengers and social media platforms.
