We have our own Taliban*: nationalists terrorize businessmen and activists

Two days ago, Yobidoyobi, a Krasnoyarsk sushi and roll delivery network, apologized for an advertisement with a black man. In the community of the Krasnoyarsk branch of Yobidoyobi on Vkontakte, the apology is formulated as follows: “On behalf of the whole company, we want to apologize to the Russian nation for having hurt the Russians with our photos”.

The company faced harassment after posting two promotional photos of a black man on social media. The first photo was published on August 14, in which a man posed surrounded by three girls. The second - on August 24, on it he was already alone.

On August 24, one of the pictures was published on his telegram channel by the founder of the "Men's State" movement, Vladislav Pozdnyakov. He urged subscribers to "leave reviews" and "place left orders" - that is, order sushi and not pay for it. After that, commentators came to the Yobidoyobi community on VKontakte with accusations of “propaganda of multiculturalism”, and the company really faced refusals to pay for orders.

The "Men's State" is a movement and community of the same name in Russian social networks, hundreds of thousands of people have subscribed to it. Vladislav Pozdnyakov promotes nationalist and racist views. In December 2019, he was sentenced to two years' probation due to incitement to hatred of women (part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code), a few months later the case was closed due to the partial decriminalization of the article.

According to various versions, Pozdnyakov now lives in Poland or Georgia. In May 2020, an online campaign was launched against Pozdnyakov, demanding that he be held accountable for bullying women. At the same time, the administration of the social network VKontakte blocked the "Male State" group, the reason being "calls to violent actions". But, as we can see, the Nazis continue their activities successfully.

The Yobidoyobi website has been subjected to DDOS attacks since August 26. Supporters of the "Male State" also began to write negative comments about "Yobidoyobi" in review services and on online maps. In addition, Pozdnyakov's Telegram channel published links to social networks of girls who starred in an advertisement with a black man, and Zimen's personal number was published. The businessman began to receive calls and messages with death threats, and his number began to be registered “on dozens of sites”.

As a result, the company got scared of the threats and backed down. Next, the "Male State" attacked another Russian company "Tanuki" for a similar "sin". From "Tanuki" they demand an apology for the photo with dark-skinned models and rainbow symbols.

Pozdnyakov wrote in Telegram that the company should remove such posts and apologize "to the Russian nation for imposing values alien to it." Pozdnyakov threatened Tanuki with losses, the propaganda Russian TV channel RT reports.

However, "Tanuki" were not scared: "We do not plan to delete any posts, despite the harsh hate." The company told RT reporters that they would complain about harassment for photos with dark-skinned models and rainbow symbols and would not apologize:

“Firstly, we did not violate any laws, and secondly, this is not the first attempt when they are trying to accuse us of something. Tomorrow there will be an official appeal from our lawyers to these channels, which spread calls for aggression, racism, etc. Apparently, in our country, people do not all support our communication policy and our history in marketing".

According to the interlocutor, most of the calls to remove advertising posts come from Moscow, as well as from the territories of Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

Public figure Alyona Popova, who has registered as a candidate for the State Duma in the upcoming elections, also complains about the actions of the "Male State". Popova writes on her blog:

“There is such an absolutely wonderful organization, they call themselves the "Men's State"- this is such a group of losers who like to assert themselves by humiliating women. Apparently, they are haunted by the laurels of the SERB organization, which ruined the life of activists and oppositionists where it was not appropriate for the authorities to do so. A kind of way to spoil life - maybe they will be offended and calm down.

For several days now, all my social networks have been attacked by trolls of these masters - they write insults, threaten to “cut my family,” now they started calling and leaked my data to all databases (to the question of how the law on personal data works and the protection of this data. Remember about this if you choose to vote online). Well, let them have fun, I'm not touchy and such nonsense won't break me.

And they also try to hack me very aggressively in the same social networks - notifications come in endlessly with a request to confirm the entrance. Standard hack.

I installed two-level authentication everywhere, and I wish the attackers good luck: obviously, we have intensified their search for "compromising evidence", realizing that our campaign is really going well. If they are afraid of you, then your chances are really high..."

As journalist Kirill Shulika quite rightly wrote:

“And how is this different from the banned Taliban? We have our own. You can admire him, no one is following him..."

* Terrorist organization banned in Russia.