The famous Russian lifestyle influencer Victoria Bonya attracted a lot of attention with a video in which she criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the clip having millions of views and more than 800,000 likes on Instagram, DPA reported, BTA reported.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich, people are afraid of you“, said critically Bonya, who lives outside Russia, addressing Putin. Expressing criticism of the Russian president is rare, the agency notes.
“People are afraid of you, influencers are afraid of you, artists are afraid of you, governors are afraid of you. And you are the president of our country. "I think we shouldn't be afraid," she said.
Bonya said she herself is not afraid of the Kremlin leader, supports him and believes he is a strong political figure who is poorly informed.
In the 18-minute video, she lists problems that she believes regional authorities are not properly reporting to Putin.
Among these problems, she mentioned assistance to those affected by flooding in the Russian republic of Dagestan, the oil spill near the city of Anapa on Russia's Black Sea coast after two tankers collided there in December 2024, as well as recent internet outages.
Bonya gained popularity through her participation in a Russian reality TV format and has nearly 13 million followers on Instagram.