Putin’s propagandists. An endless, bottomless subject that genuinely infuriates anyone. And how could it not? In a country where teachers and doctors earn 20,000 rubles a month, there are people whom the state pays millions of dollars for very simple work: lying and mass-brainwashing Russians.
Every day—or rather, twice a day—this pointless pair appears on television and lies. That is their job. Without a shred of shame—or rather, with effort and obvious enjoyment—they bicker, bulge their eyes, and shout insults.
And now one of them, known across the country as “Skabeeva’s husband,” is heading for the State Duma. Not just anywhere, but in one of Moscow’s most opposition-minded districts. And that is a perfect reason to tell you how much money can really be made from hysteria and lies on national television, and from endless stories about the “decaying West,” “Ukrainian fascists,” “Banderites” (followers of Stepan Bandera, used in Russian propaganda as a slur for Ukrainian nationalists), and the U.S. State Department supposedly being behind everything. You can make a lot—hundreds of millions.
The mission of today’s heroes, the propagandist spouses from the show *60 Minutes*, is simple and straightforward: to indoctrinate, to create a parallel reality for gullible viewers of state television. To turn Ukraine into hell, the opposition into con artists and Western hirelings, and the West into the ultimate enemy—responsible for all of Russia’s troubles. Unlike Putin, of course.
You have all probably seen this disgraceful show at least once. A completely talentless production built on the same tired gimmick. In the studio, “experts” attack a group of “liberals”/Ukrainians/Americans and explain how terrible they are and how wonderful Putin is. It is an extremely mediocre way to do the job. But as their spiritual mentor taught them, if you repeat the same lie often enough, everyone will believe it.
These are just the latest few videos on their state-run YouTube channel.
Popov and Skabeeva are not journalists, nor are they people with opinions of their own—they are criminals, there is no other word for it. They incite war and hatred and brainwash millions of Russians. They are good for nothing else. Their only outstanding ability is to be as repulsive as possible and stop at nothing.
But how much do they get paid for it? How much can you earn from professional hatred directed at Ukraine? What do you get in exchange for gushing over Maria Zakharova’s poetry? Few people would agree to do that for free, and our heroes, of course, did not miss their chance to profit. In just a few years of hosting this so-called talk show, they became fabulously rich and bought themselves some of the most elite real estate in central Moscow.
And now the moment has come when money alone is no longer enough for the propagandists. Now Yevgeny Popov wants power. He is planning to become a State Duma deputy—from United Russia.
What you have just seen is a classic trick of the presidential administration and United Russia’s main campaign gimmick. A couple of months before the election, the very best candidate suddenly appears, and the handout festivals begin outside apartment buildings.
Oh, look, he gave women flowers—how charming!
Oh, look, he stocked a pond—now there are bighead carp in Mozhaysky District.
And the trees—just look at how many trees Yevgeny Popov has planted. A real champion.
Never mind that everything here is completely upside down—what do fish in a pond have to do with the State Duma? Does Popov not know, not understand, that a State Duma deputy does not deal with benches, park seats, and pedestrian crossings? Is he confusing the powers of a municipal deputy—not even a city-level one—with those of a State Duma member?
No, he is simply fooling voters in exactly the same way he does on television. He pretends that if they vote for him, for Popov, then for the next five years he will run around their district with a screwdriver fixing everything that is broken. When in reality, for the next five years he will sit in the State Duma passing laws on raising the retirement age, increasing VAT, and jailing people for reposts on Facebook.
United Russia spent 40 million rubles in public funds to make Yevgeny Popov likable to you, Muscovites.
Including on this waste paper.
Look for it in every mailbox. Six pages of nostalgic photos and self-praise for his outstanding journalistic work and heroic deeds. And, as required, a section on the horrors of the United States:
And the most touching section of all: what does candidate Popov dream of? He wants a boat—a motorboat—for fishing. Such simple dreams.
And then there are the 160 stories about Popov’s exploits published by the municipal newspaper in Dorogomilovo—for free. Another 343 stories in the paper in Krylatskoye. The district newspaper in Fili Park seems practically glued to Popov—more than 500 mentions.
Before, there was not a word about him. Now it is a copy-paste bombardment—Kuntsevo, Fili, Vernadsky Prospekt, Mozhaysky. Moscow 24, TV Center, *Argumenty i Fakty*—all of them suddenly became interested in what Yevgeny Popov thinks about property management companies.
Suddenly, the rector of Moscow State University meets with a talk show host who has no power and no administrative authority whatsoever, and construction workers report to him on how well they are renovating classrooms in the main building. A circus.
Popov himself, who previously cared about nothing except Ukraine, has suddenly decided to concern himself with utilities and housing services, urban improvement, preserving architectural heritage, rehousing people from dilapidated buildings, forests, parks, bike lanes, sidewalks, and even volunteer work.
His team delivers groceries and replaces thermal paste in elderly women’s computers. They even help pick out smartphones—stylish ones, with big buttons.
And this unprecedented burst of activity, this sudden interest in Muscovites’ problems, has flared up in Popov in exactly one specific district—the one he was assigned to run in, and with which he has absolutely no connection.
Every day, Yevgeny Popov leaves home, gets into his brand-new Mercedes GLE worth 7 million rubles, and heads for the apartment blocks in Kuntsevo or Fili, where he begins his daily show—now repackaged as an election campaign.
There, a man whose family income comes to 26 million rubles a year drones on about how he will make sure his voters receive the staggering sum of 20,000 rubles a month.
Oh, how well he understands the problems of city residents living in crumbling buildings and wondering whether their balcony will collapse this year or next. And according to United Russia’s plan, these deeply concerned looks and endless promises are supposed to make Yevgeny Popov seem so close to the people.
But let us consider just how close to even a Moscow voter can be a man in whose Moscow real estate alone we found nearly 300 million rubles’ worth of property.
Last year, when the media revealed Popov and Skabeeva’s income, they were outraged. They said, “No, it is all lies, we are not paid that much, and in any case it is none of your business.” Popov called journalist Sergei Yezhov, who had sent him an official inquiry, a “garbage worm.” And then proudly posted the screenshot on his own Telegram channel, with a caption about CIA machinations.
But now it is a little clearer why the propagandist couple got so upset: their wealth was clearly underestimated. 13 million rubles a year is insultingly low.
The propagandist family began its climb into Moscow’s elite real estate back in 2015. By then they had already spent years working for the state broadcaster VGTRK, but they were not yet so famous.
Yevgeny Popov hosted a news program. Olga Skabeeva hosted her own show, Vesti.doc, where such issues of pressing importance to Russians were discussed as Mikheil Saakashvili’s women.
And then, in the spring of 2015, they bought their first substantial Moscow apartment—in a newly built building on Verkhnyaya Maslovka Street.
A great location: Petrovsky Park is 100 meters away, and work is not far either—just 6 minutes by car or 26 on foot. By Moscow standards, that is practically nothing. It is 105 square meters, with a view of the park. An apartment like that costs 45 million rubles.
To be honest, we did not follow Popov’s Instagram before he was nominated by United Russia, so we discovered it only recently. And we found that he absolutely loves taking pictures of himself in elevators.
It is always the same elevator: the same buttons, the same handrail, the same wall plate—everything identical. And this love affair with the elevator flared up at one specific moment in time, in late 2019. We will not drag out the suspense: we found the elevator, along with the property attached to it—worth 250 million rubles.
The elevator is in the new luxury residential complex VTB Arena Park. It is even closer to the VGTRK studio—just 800 meters away.
Here, Popov and Skabeeva bought a 170-square-meter apartment. It is an excellent apartment; we obtained its floor plans from the developer’s website.
It is on the 9th floor. Inside, there is a 37-square-meter living room combined with a hall of the same size. The apartment has 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and a wonderful view of the park and Dynamo Stadium. We estimate its value, with finishing and renovation, at 130 million rubles.
But that is not all the propagandist spouses own in this residential complex. Here they are not just residents, but also landlord and landlady. After all, anything can happen in life, and it is entirely possible that one day lying will no longer be a viable source of income—but they will still need to live. So they bought a commercial space with a separate entrance on the ground floor as well.
The space measures 180 square meters and is priced at 130 million rubles. It is located in the building next to their apartment, where the upper floors are occupied by the luxury Hyatt hotel. So our TV hosts’ tenants will not be short of customers, which means Popov and Skabeeva will have something to live on, just in case.
So these two apartments and one commercial space alone come to 300 million rubles. Neither Popov nor Skabeeva has ever had a business; they are not entrepreneurs; they have no other income besides what comes from us, from the state TV channel Rossiya.
Now let us return to the election. Because there, in District No. 197, where Popov is filmed pumping sewage out of a basement, the situation is VERY interesting. You wanted real political intrigue? Here it is.
TV host Popov, a resident of a luxury complex near Dynamo, did not end up in this district by accident. The district includes Dorogomilovo, Kuntsevo, Fili, Mozhaysky, as well as the university areas of Ramenki and Vernadsky Prospekt—it is one of the most opposition-minded and difficult districts for United Russia.
In the last election, in 2016, when United Russia’s nationwide rating stood at 44% according to official figures, the party’s candidate got only 29.52% there. In other words, far below the national level.
Now, even according to the state-run pollster VTsIOM, Putin’s party’s rating has nearly halved. You can imagine what awaits an ordinary United Russia candidate in Krylatskoye, Kuntsevo, and Ramenki this year. That is why they are bringing in the heavy artillery in the form of a famous TV host who is constantly on national television. They are counting on this to fool someone and win votes.
But even that is not all. Let us look once again at the results of the last election.
A completely unknown Communist Party functionary got 15%. Yabloko candidate Igor Nikolayev got 13%, and LDPR candidate Nilov nearly 9%. It is not hard to see that if you add up the votes cast for non–United Russia candidates, the United Russia nominee falls far behind. And again, that was five years ago—United Russia is in much worse shape now.
And that is exactly what we are proposing. The point of our Smart Voting strategy is that everyone who does not like the United Russia propagandist Popov agrees to vote for his single strongest opponent.
Does this sound like a reckless, unrealistic idea to you? Do you think it cannot work? It can. Smart Voting has already won right here, in Ramenki and Fili. Two years ago, in the Moscow City Duma election, Yekaterina Engalycheva won here. She was the Smart Voting pick, district residents followed the recommendation, and she crushed the United Russia-backed opponent by a two-to-one margin.
This year, Popov’s opponents are much stronger than last time. There are many decent candidates here at once: the Communist Party has nominated Lobanov, an MSU lecturer and leader of the university’s independent trade union. Yabloko has nominated Goncharov, deputy head of the party’s Moscow branch. The fake opposition party New People has put forward Tarbayev, a former KVN comedian; the Russian Party of Freedom and Justice has nominated Dmitry Potapenko—these are all fairly recognizable names. The LDPR candidate is a doctor; A Just Russia has nominated former State Duma deputy Tarnavsky. The Greens have put forward grandmaster Igor Glek.
In other words, several candidates, without any exaggeration, have a very good chance of defeating Popov. But that is both good and bad. On the one hand, if everyone takes part in Smart Voting as before, then United Russia’s Popov is finished. But on the other hand, a large number of real, fairly well-known competitors creates the risk that everyone will vote for their own favorite, and as a result none of them will beat Popov.
So friends, readers from Krylatskoye, Kuntsevo, Fili, and Ramenki—it is all in your hands. There is no point lamenting that there is no real election—here it is, right on your doorstep. The intrigue is real, and the outcome, unlike in most other places, is unpredictable. Here it is either Smart Voting or millionaire deputy Popov, who has nothing to offer Muscovites except fairy tales about “Ukrainian fascists.”
Unite. Register for Smart Voting. Download the app (for iOS, for Android). We will be following the campaigns in this district very closely. We will do everything we can to identify the objectively strongest candidate and send you their name a few days before the election.
There are no words for how sick we all are of United Russia. And we have a very real chance to get back at them—to throw all their plans into disarray, ruin all their schemes, and humiliate those who think a Muscovite’s vote can be bought with grass carp or bighead carp in a neighborhood pond.
Take part in Smart Voting. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Follow us on Telegram. And on Instagram. Roskomnadzor (Russia’s state media and internet regulator) recently blocked access to all our websites from within Russia. Subscribing to our social media is the best way to keep getting news and watching new investigations.
Freedom for Alexei Navalny.
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