[imagesource: Twitter / @pevchikh]

There’s little anonymity for Russian oligarchs in the age of social media and the urge to influence and show off one’s luxury lifestyle.

Not that these Russian billionaires, who are on the US, UK, and EU sanction target lists following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, are the ones showing off.

Rather, the stepdaughters, ex-wives, and mistresses are revealing evidence about where Putin’s sanctioned cronies are hiding their various assets.

Take for example that duck-face selfie above taken by Polina Kovaleva on a yacht somewhere, which got her, the unofficial stepdaughter of Russia’s foreign minister, banned from entering the UK as well as all of her property frozen.

Three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, her careless Instagram posts went viral on Twitter, proving how a few snaps can be terribly useful for investigators tracking down the assets of Russia’s sanctioned elite, and how showing off on Instagram is a dangerous pastime.

I mean these women are ultimately just doing their jobs: showing off as an influencer, as Alex Finley, a former CIA officer who now spends time tracking oligarch yachts, says via VICE:

“They’re under a lot of social pressure to show off their wealth. They don’t understand the security rules that are in place, or all the things that people can figure out from a photo,” Finley said.

“They think—‘Hey, cool shot!’ They’re a weak link.”

Before Kovaleva was sanctioned by the UK government, her lavish Instagram data goldmine was turned into the basis of a video investigation and a viral Twitter thread.

This was done by a team of activists founded by jailed Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.

You can go through that Twitter thread posted by Maria Pevchick, head of investigations at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation:

Who said you cannot solve a problem with a twitter thread? Polina Kovaleva has been sanctioned today. Her glamorous British life is over. This wouldn’t have happened without all of you. Without 70k likes, retweets and all of you talking about it. Thank you. https://t.co/UtyvZdIHLN

— Maria Pevchikh (@pevchikh) March 24, 2022

Alongside the “Diplomat’s ‘Stepdaughter'” there’s also the case of “‘Darth Vader’ (Putin aide Igor Sechin) and the St. Princess Olga (his alleged $120 million megayacht)”:

Sechin’s penchant for secrecy and toughness earned him the nickname “Darth Vader” in the Russian and international press. He rose to prominence as a Kremlin insider and also chairman, and later CEO, of Russian national oil company Rosneft.

…A joint investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a report connecting Instagram photos posted by Sechin’s glamorous second wife, Olga, to the vessel’s leisurely route through the Mediterranean.

There was the expected back and forth between Sechin, the media, and the authorities – him suing them and them retracting their claims – but the vessel was eventually impounded by French officials earlier this month.

Then there’s the interesting (and layered) case of the “billionaire, the yacht, and the self-described ‘sex huntress'”.

Another investigation linked Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska to a Norway yacht trip with a self-described “mistress”, Anastasia Vashukevich, who posted a picture of herself alongside Deripaska:

 

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A post shared by Настя Рыбка (@nastya_rybka.ru)

You might want to take that caption through Google translate for a journey into Vashukevich’s side hustle.

But the main juice is that the post came out of an alleged secret maritime meeting between Deripaska and a senior Russian government official:

In a weird and never fully explained series of events, Vashukevich then claimed she had been a key eyewitness to high-level discussions about Russia’s involvement in the U.S. 2016 elections—and said she had tapes to back up her claims.

Soon after that, she was arrested in Thailand on charges of soliciting to provide sexual services along with a self-described “sex guru,” released, detained again in Moscow, released, and finally claimed that she gave Deripaska the tapes and wouldn’t say anything more about what she supposedly knew.

Deripaska foiled Vashukevich’s claims, which he denied, with the excuse that the “false allegations” were “the result of a planned campaign aimed to damage my reputation”.

But at the end of the day, Deripaska was sanctioned by the US.

[source:vice]