AMSTERDAM - Pro-Russian influencers are raising funds for the Russian armed forces online and transferring that money to Russia using the payment platform of a company based in the Netherlands, Nieuwsuur reported based on its own research. The company involved is Boosty, owned by a Russian man with ties to Vladimir Putin.
Russian soldiers post videos online showing the equipment they need. Pro-Russia influencers then spread this information on social media like Telegram, calling for donations.
One such influencer is Kirill Fedorov. His channel has over 500,00 followers. He claims that he has already equipped hundreds of Russian soldiers with things like drones, radios, and GPS watches. He also says that a Russian army unit killed six Ukrainian special forces thanks to equipment purchased with the funds he raised. Fedorov specifically targets donors outside Russia and tells them to donate cryptocurrency or use the Boosty platform, which allows money transfers into Russian bank accounts.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which is responsible for guaranteeing the integrity of the Dutch financial system, is concerned about the results of the Nieuwsuur investigation. “The recipients of the funds show in videos: Look, this is what we used your money for. This is so open that it worries me,” FIU head Hennie Verbeek-Kusters told the current affairs program. If Boosty really transfers money into Russian accounts, including those of the Russian army, despite the EU sanctions, “then this is a case of sanction evasion, and that is a crime,” he said.
Derk Sauer, publisher of the digital newspaper The Moscow Times, told Nieuwsuur that Boosty is one of the few ways his newspaper can receive donations from Russian citizens who want to support it. Still, he does not use it. “Boosty is from a company that has clear contacts with the Kremlin. We believe that the chance that data from people who donate money will end up with the Russian security services is too great.”
Nieuwsuur also found that the company behind Boosty, CEBC, had a remarkable address - the hall of a nursing home in Zwolle, though the company recently moved to an office in Amstelveen. CEBC is a subsidiary of a large game developer, MyGames, located in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. Until Russia invaded Ukraine, the company was part of the internet giant VKontakte (VK), also known as the Russian Facebook, affiliated with the Kremlin.
The owner of MyGames is the Russian investor Aleksandr Tsjatsjava, who bought the company from VK for 600 million euros shortly after the invasion. Sauer pointed that out as suspicious. “When it came up for sale, others offered twice as much. They sold it for only 600 million euros to Tsjatsjava, who was a good friend of VK CEO Vladimir Kirienko. And he is the son of Putin’s chief of staff.” Kirienko is on the EU sanctions list, but Tsjatsjava is not. So his business can continue, including payments via Boosty from people outside Russia to Russian soldiers.
