Blogger Blinovskaya detained on Russian border

She is suspected of evading over €10 million worth of taxes

Yelena Blinovskaya, a Russian Instagram blogger and a “life coach”, has been detained over a criminal procedure that suspects her of failing to pay over 918 million rubles worth of taxes [€10.2 million], Russia’s Investigative Committee reports.

Blinovskaya is suspected of dodging taxes and laundering money on an especially large scale.

The investigation says Blinovskaya was providing “informational service on the Internet”, and, by using the business splitting method, “underreported her profits” and did not pay value added tax and personal income tax for the period between 2019 and 2021, and also “legalised” these funds through financial transactions.

The Investigative Committee says Blinovskaya was detained upon trying to cross the Russian border in a rental car.

She also had a flight booked to another country, the agency’s press release said.

The 112 Telegram channel reports that Blinovskaya purchased a plane ticket to Almaty the day before, but she was warned about the impending detention, and changed her route. It is said that she rented a car with a driver at night and headed towards Belarus. Blinovskaya was detained near the border of the Russian Federation in the Smolensk region, 112 says.

Blinovskaya’s social media accounts do not mention her detention. The day before, the blogger spoke at the AMOCONF business event.

Blinovskaya is a life coach and the author of the Marathon of Wishes programme for personal growth. She has over 5.3 million followers on her Instagram account.

In March, the Investigative Committee opened a case on tax evasion worth more than 120 million rubles against blogger Alexandra Mitroshina. According to the agency, she received income from education courses “in a significantly larger amount” than the limit allowed for an individual entrepreneur under the simplified taxation system.

On 7 March blogger Valeria Chekalina, aka Lerchek, was charged with tax evasion in the amount of 311 million rubles. A new case was opened against her and her husband Artyom on 16 March for money laundering in the amount of 120 million rubles. The court forbade her to use the Internet and phone during the investigation, as well as to communicate with witnesses and accomplices in the case. She has 10 million followers on Instagram.