Boosty, a Russian app used by content creators to receive donations from their followers, has been accused of helping circumvent sanctions by collecting donations for the Russian military from its users both inside and outside Russia, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported on Wednesday.
Russian military bloggers are now using the service to collect donations, according to NOS news programme Nieuwsuur, which named one of the most popular as Kirill Fyodorov, who has more than 500,000 subscribers. Fyodorov regularly calls for people to donate money to help Russian war veterans and organises fundraising campaigns through the service, Nieuwsuur said.
Now incorporated in the Netherlands, Boosty, which describes itself as “the best way for content creators to make money and connect with the audience”, belongs to MY.GAMES, which was previously part of Russian tech giant VK. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctioning of VK, MY.GAMES was sold to investor Alexander Chachava, to avoid the same fate.
Dutch media magnate Derk Sauer told Nieuwsuur that he had found the details of the MY.GAMES sale remarkable. “Other bidders offered almost twice as much when it came up for sale, yet they sold it to Chachava for just €600 million. He is good friends with VK CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko, who just happens to be the son of Putin’s chief of staff.”
Nieuwsuur was also able to confirm it’s possible to make transfers to Russian users via Boosty, and said that the Dutch financial authorities were already looking into the service.
“Fundraising for any near-militaristic purposes is forbidden on the platform,” a representative of CEBC, a Netherlands-based company that operates Boosty, told Novaya Gazeta Europe, adding that the offending accounts “were banned before the article was published, based on received and validated complaints” from users.
In turn, the MY.GAMES press service told Novaya Gazeta Europe that the Nieuwsuur report contained “false, misleading and unproved statements about MY.GAMES and its shareholder that affect the company’s business reputation” and that the company was considering legal action against the outlet.
