Sergei Brilyov, a subject of Queen Elizabeth and, incidentally, deputy head of VGTRK (Russia’s state broadcasting company), realized that we had him cornered.
In Moscow, you can lie about anything. But in London, there are neighbors. There’s a social circle too: respectable, proper people. And an immigration officer at the border. How are you supposed to slide your British passport through the booth window after publicly renouncing that citizenship?
So he kept quiet for a week. At one point, his wife told TV Rain that the Brilyov family owned no property in London. But after weighing the pros and cons, Sergei made a firm choice in favor of Great Britain.
He wrote a post saying: "Ha-ha-ha. Why, I never hid it. Everyone around me knew about my British passport and my London apartment. Some investigation this is."
Conclusions:
Support the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation), folks.
Russia has a genuine colonial administration in place. And its representative does not give a damn even about the opinions of the natives; the only thing that matters is not feeling awkward in front of the neighbors back in the imperial metropolis.
For all media outlets, this is an excellent master class in the difference between “the wife refuted it” and “the wife denies it.” Thanks to Meduza. They were the only ones who wrote it the way it should be written. Officials’ lies should appear under the headline “denies,” not “refuted.”
The ACF will officially demand that VGTRK label TV host Brilyov a “foreign agent.” And we demand that the Ministry of Justice designate VGTRK itself a foreign agent, since a British citizen exerts substantial influence over its editorial policy — no less than a deputy editor-in-chief.