A glamorous pro-Kremlin influencer with 13 million followers has issued a direct warning to Vladimir Putin over Russia’s economic crisis.
Victoria Bonya, a former reality TV star, posted an extraordinary 18-minute video address to the Russian president, telling him the public are ready to ‘snap’.
‘People are afraid of you,’ she told Putin in rare criticism.
‘Ordinary people are afraid, bloggers are afraid, artists are afraid. Governors are afraid of you.’
Despite her previous unctuous backing for Putin and his long war, Bonya, 46, claimed the Kremlin leader is receiving false reports from officials and has no real understanding of the hardship facing Russians.
She warned him: ‘The most frightening thing is that this is happening because you, Vladimir [Putin], do not know what is going on in the country.
‘You are not being given accurate information.’
Her criticism echoes some experts who say Putin has surrounded himself with yes-men and those who are too intimidated to challenge him as well as corrupt oligarchs who face ruin if his policies change.
‘People are suffering greatly today,’ she said insisting she was not scared of him, possibly because she lives abroad.
‘Businesses are dying – small and medium-sized businesses. People are losing money.’
She warned the situation could spiral if ignored.
‘Do you know what this leads to? I’ll tell you. People will grow tired of being afraid.
‘They are being compressed like a spring – and one day that spring will snap. ‘
Bonya highlighted a string of crises she says are being hidden from the president, including deadly flooding in Dagestan, an appalling oil spill which ruined beaches at top resort Anapa, economic pressure on small businesses, chronic social media bans and internet restrictions which have crippled online entrepreneurs, and a rising number of people leaving Russia.
Many of the problems relate to the war in Ukraine – about which Russians are forbidden to complain.
The video – titled ‘An appeal to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. From all concerned Russians’ – quickly went viral, racking up more than 6.6 million views and over 370,000 likes within less than 12 hours.
Reaction online was split.
Some praised Bonya for ‘voicing real problems,’ while others mocked her claims that Putin is unaware of events.
One said: ‘THANK YOU SO MUCH for expressing the opinion of the majority of Russians!’
‘He knows everything perfectly well,’ one commenter wrote. ‘You’re naive.’
Another said: ‘Fear is the goal. Intimidated people are easy to control.’
One more commented: ‘Have you ever considered that the president is the main instigator of everything you’ve said? You’re wrong to think the president doesn’t see anything. He created all of this.’
The Bonya intervention is striking given her past reputation as a loyal Kremlin supporter, and highlights growing unease even among high-profile public figures over the direction of Russia under Putin who has ruled the country for 27 years as president or premier.
Bonya – a millionaire usually based in Monaco but with a massive following in Russia – told Putin: ‘You can’t treat people like this, stripping them of everything.
‘What do you want – to create a famine?’
