MOSCOW – Thousands of Russian internet users are flocking to the audio-based chat app Clubhouse, which has become the best place of all places to risk their lives in an authoritarian political system.
This week was packed with news about clubhouse. On Saturday, Elon Musk went public invited Russian President Vladimir Putin for a discussion on the app. Another avid user of the clubhouse is Luiza Rozova, a 17-year-old who is claimed by independent Russian media to be Putin’s illegitimate daughter. She recently used the platform to share insights about her university major, her pursuit of a career in fashion, and her apparent affinity for frantic fearless conspiracy theories. And in an extraordinary public view on a typical silence topic, 300 Russian journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders joined an open room in Clubhouse to discuss the espionage case against one of Russia’s leading reporters on military affairs, Ivan Safronov, discussed. who have been detained for more than six months on charges of treason.
In July, the Federal Security Service arrested Safronov and placed him in Lefortovo, one of Moscow’s most notorious prisons where he faces a term of more than 20 years. The agency accused Safronov of working for the Czech secret service and passing on classified information about the Russian army. Investigators allege that the US was the final recipient of the secret information provided by Safronov in 2017.
‘It’s been almost seven months since Ivan was put behind bars; his accused probably hoped that there would now be no public attention to his case, ”said Safronov’s friend, Ilya Barabanov, who was one of the five most important speakers during the clubhouse discussion.
Some Russian clubhouse users compare the platform to the television stations – or television bridges, as they were known under the USSR – in the 1980s, divided between Russian and American audiences. Soviet and American journalists arranged the bridges to connect Moscow, Leningrad, San Francisco, Boston, and other cities for discussions about history and trends in culture, journalism, or lifestyles.
Just as the bridges did more than 40 years ago, Clubhouse now provides a platform for some unexpected speakers, including Putin’s alleged daughter, who used the app to talk about her thoughts on working in New York, Paris or Milan and the cities “boiling points of fashion.” (The Kremlin has denied that she is a family member.)
Rozova described Andrei Zakharov, author of ‘Iron Masks’, an investigative report in Project Media, describing the life of her mother, the wealthy Svetlana Krivonogikh. According to Proekt, Krivonogikh has a net worth of $ 101 million. She has been a ‘close acquaintance’ of Putin since the 1990s, and her daughter, Luiza, ‘has an incredible resemblance’ to the Kremlin leader, according to the report. Rozova did not comment on the aspect of Zakharov’s story, but she did admit that she enjoyed the popularity it brought to her social media accounts.
Thanks to Clubhouse, the Russians now know that Rozova does not watch television, gets her news from the Telegram app, believes in pandemic conspiracy theories, and approves of the Kremlin ‘assassination of political dissidents. Before Zakharov even joined the discussion, one club user asked Rozova what she thought of Putin’s remark about the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, in which he said that if Russian special services wanted to kill Navalny, “they would have done it.”
Rozova responds without hesitation: ‘The’ Golden Billion ‘society is behind this whole gimmick with the coronavirus. “It seems that they are killing people,” said the teenager. “If ordinary people can do it, then why can’t the government do it for reasonable purposes?”
Yet there is no safe place for ubiquitous Russian corruption. The Government Gazette Rossiyskaya Gazeta warns citizens about buying invitations to clubhouse talks, urging them ‘not to give in to the excitement’ and ‘not to pay for invitations from strangers.’
Russian bureaucrats of all levels, from regional officials to the Kremlin administration, also join clubhouse chats. These include the former deputy prime minister and current president of the International Chess Federation, Arkady Dvorkovich, who used the app on Monday to answer questions about Russia’s plans to host the Chess Olympics, and announced that he hopes to host the Olympics next year. in Moscow. . ”
The Kremlin’s political opponents are also exploring the possibilities of this new social medium. Valery Kostenok, a 21-year-old politician and member of the Yabloko party, downloaded Clubhouse on his phone on Wednesday. “I was skeptical at first because there was a rumor that someone was recording all the conversations and licking. “But I realized I had nobody’s secrets and decided to download the app,” he told The Daily Beast. “The pandemic, police arrests and prosecution have made many of our favorite platforms and spaces unavailable. Russians are big fans of public lectures, debates and discussions, so our youth are now storming into clubhouse rooms. ”