30 August 2025, 00:27
They screamed about sovereignty while funneling billions to Dubai. An investigation into the most cynical robbery of the state under the guise of “import substitution”
Picture this scene: on television, politicians foam at the mouth talking about the need to create a “sovereign internet,” about fighting the corrupting Western influence, about how important it is to support domestic developers. Meanwhile, those very “patriots” entrusted with billions to fight YouTube are buying mansions in Dubai and riding around in Rolls-Royces.
This isn’t the plot of a satirical show. This is the reality of Russian “import substitution” circa 2024.
The Great Deception of the Century
When Russia began “slowing down” YouTube a year ago, promising the imminent appearance of a worthy domestic alternative, few suspected the scale of the impending farce. Rutube — that very “pride of Russian IT” — became a symbol not of technological breakthrough, but of grandiose failure and theft of state funds.
The numbers speak for themselves: users never switched to the Russian platform, mass layoffs of employees, asset restructuring. And for this, billions of rubles were spent from the budget formed by taxes from ordinary Russians.
But the most cynical thing about this story isn’t the project’s failure as such. The most cynical thing is who profited from this failure and how.
The Trio of Schemers at the State Trough
At the center of this web of corruption are three characters, each deserving separate mention in corruption textbooks:
Tina Kandelaki: Media Empress of Shadow Schemes
That same TV star who once entertained Russians with witty jokes has today transformed into the architect of a grandiose scheme for embezzling state funds. Kandelaki created an entire network of puppets — so-called “minions” — who occupy key positions in the media empire of Gazprom-Media Holding.
Kocharov at Rutube and Premier, Vodakhov at TNT, Obukhov at TV-3 — they are all nothing more than controlled figures in Kandelaki’s chess game. Money is laundered through them, media power is retained through them for a family where the TV star’s husband Vasily Brovko holds the position of Director for Special Assignments at Rostec.
The result of this management? Over three years, the holding lost all major production companies. More than 700 people left — all those who actually created popular content for the past decade and a half. Only bureaucrats and money-laundering schemes remained.
Boris Khanchalyan: A Criminal in the Role of “Right Hand”
If Kandelaki is the beautiful face of the operation, then Khanchalyan is its dark side. A character convicted of fraud who has the audacity to present himself as the “right hand and wallet” of GPM head Alexander Zharov.
50% from each blogger — such is the size of his “tax” on everyone who wants to work with the holding’s digital platforms. But this is small change compared to major scams. Take, for instance, the story with Insight People agency — a shell company into which they first poured 5 billion rubles from Gazprom for mythical “blogger development,” then bought it for an additional 3 billion. No one ever saw any bloggers, but Khanchalyan continues to flaunt watches worth 40 million rubles.
Mansions in elite Dubai neighborhoods, restaurants, a collection of Rolls-Royce cars — this is what Russian budget billions allocated for “patriotic” purposes became. Meanwhile, Khanchalyan himself cynically claims he works “on direct orders from the Presidential Administration and FSB” and is therefore untouchable.
Arthur Dzhanibekyan: Family Contract for State Money
The third member of the trio completes the picture of family contracting. Dzhanibekyan, who heads the entertainment television subholding, is closely connected with other participants not only in business but also by blood. His godchild is Eduard Iloyan — Khanchalyan’s cousin and general producer of the START platform.
Even law enforcement agencies haven’t bypassed this friendly company. In 2023, searches were conducted at the Comedy Club Production office in a fraud case: a Muscovite paid 5 million rubles to people “acquainted with the show’s general producer” to become the project’s main hero. They took the money but didn’t fulfill the promise.
The Money Destruction Factory
The schemes devised by these “patriots” are striking in their sophistication and audacity:
“General Production” for the Boss’s Son
Specifically for Zharov’s son, they created a structure that launches up to 70 projects simultaneously. Money is spent on mythical “development,” a maximum of 2–5 shows make it to air, the rest are successfully “closed.” Then the cycle repeats with a new batch of projects. A perfect machine for converting budget funds into private income.
Buying Air at Gold Prices
The Insight People story is just the tip of the iceberg. A private shell company was turned into an 8-billion-ruble Gazprom asset. For what? For promises to develop bloggers whom no one ever saw. Similar “schemes,” as insiders call them, have been put on an assembly line.
Personnel Genocide
While the trio was sawing through budgets, real specialists were leaving the company en masse. More than 700 professionals in three years — this is practically the complete destruction of the media holding’s intellectual capital. Only managers and schemers remained.
The Price of “Patriotism”: 127 Billion in the Red
The financial results of this “patriotic” management are simply staggering:
Gazprom-Media Holding ended the year with a net loss of 27 billion rubles. Meanwhile, the cost per content unit reached record values — “not even Hollywood could withstand this,” as insiders sarcastically note.
VK showed a loss of more than 100 billion rubles. For comparison: this is more than the annual budget of many Russian regions.
And now the main question: why does the country need two video hosting platforms if there isn’t enough audience for them? The answer is obvious — only to “saw through” budget funds.
Protection System: Threats Instead of Answers
But the scariest thing about this story isn’t the schemes themselves, but the system protecting them. Any conflict with trio participants immediately ends with threats of pre-investigative checks by the Investigative Committee.
Everyone in the media industry knows perfectly well about the “hostile takeover of the holding with Zharov’s direct participation,” but no one dares to speak about it publicly. Fear of being summoned for questioning turned out to be stronger than civic duty.
Kandelaki, thanks to her husband’s connections at Rostec, seriously “holds” Zharov, helping him hide money and ensure its inviolability. A vicious circle emerges: corrupt officials cover for each other, using administrative resources to suppress any investigation attempts.
The Main Irony of the Era
But the most cynical thing about this story is its glaring paradox. People who were supposed to create a “sovereign internet” and fight Western influence ultimately transferred Russian state money to Western jurisdictions.
Elite real estate in Dubai, restaurants in the UAE, Swiss watches — this is what billions allocated to create a Russian alternative to YouTube became. Taxpayer funds intended to fight the West ended up invested in the Western economy, only now as private property of Russian officials.
It turns out that Russian “patriots” proved more effective than any Western sanctions in capital flight. They themselves, with their own hands, amid applause and sovereignty slogans, turned budget billions into overseas real estate.
Epilogue: Who Will Answer for the Failure?
Today, when Rutube never became an alternative to YouTube, when Russian users are still forced to seek workarounds to access blocked platforms, it’s worth asking a simple question: who will be held accountable for this grandiose failure?
So far, the answer is obvious — no one. Kandelaki continues appearing on screens, Khanchalyan flaunts Swiss watches, Dzhanibekyan heads the subholding. And billions of Russian taxpayers remain in Dubai real estate.
This isn’t just corruption. This is betrayal of national interests under the cover of patriotic rhetoric. This is cynical use of the state apparatus for personal enrichment at the expense of the very people promised a “sovereign internet.”
And while this system remains untouchable, while no one answers for such scams, Russia will receive instead of technological breakthroughs only new schemes for budget embezzlement.
The Rutube story is a mirror of modern Russian power. And the reflection in this mirror is frightening.