Russian influencers left in tears after their country bans Instagram
Instagram influencers in Russia have sobbed uncontrollably after Vladimir Putin’s ban on the social media app took effect.
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Russian influencers have been left in tears as they bid tearful goodbyes to their followers, after Vladimir Putin banned Instagram in the country on Monday.
Reality TV star Olga Buzova, who has 23.3 million Instagram followers, posted a nearly seven-minute video of herself sobbing over the loss of her audience.
“I am not afraid of admitting that I do not want to lose you,” she said in Russian, according to the Insider.
“I do not know what the future holds. I don‘t know. I just shared my life, my work, and my soul. I did not do this all as a job for me, this is a part of my soul.
“It feels like a big part of my heart, and my life is being taken away from me.”
In a clip shared on Twitter by Nexta TV, an unnamed Russian beauty blogger broke down in tears and said she was in the “first stage of grief” over the ban.
“Do you think that for me, as an Instagram influencer, this is [a] source of income?,” she said to fans in a video livestreamed on Telegram.
“To me, it‘s [Instagram] just all life, it’s the soul. It’s the one with which I wake up, fall asleep, f***ing five years in a row.”
Other Russian influencers implored their fans to move to Telegram or the VK social media platform to continue following them there.
“Instagram is no more,” wrote Valeria Chekalina in her Instagram bio, alongside an emoji of a crying face.
The influencer, who is pregnant and has 10.5 million followers, added that her upcoming content would be posted on Telegram and VK.
In her final Instagram post before the ban, Liza Lukasheva wrote her goodbyes to her one million followers, saying: “My dear friends, Instagram will be closed in our country in the near future … in the next few hours.
“I will be happy to stay in touch with you and continue to make content for you. Subscribe to my Telegram channel and my VKontakte community. I promise to communicate with you in English and tell you the events of my life! Thank you for everything.’
In her stories, she said: “Guys. My beloveds, just like you I’ve read all the news and I’m very upset that we could be lost, not to be found again.
“I’m basically hopeless.”
Anna Ivanova, who boasts 4.4 million following her on Instagram, said in a final post: “Millions of stories, thousands of posts, thousands of happy moments that were shared with you, your support, love, music that I could have shared with you, all of this united us into one big insta-family.
“Almost 5 million people and 10 years … I am sure that everything will get better and there will be even more of us, but for now I wish us all only peace and strength to survive all difficulties.
“I am waiting for you in my Telegram channel and in the VK group.”
However, while some of these influencers received messages of support from their followers, other users were quick to slam them for complaining amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“God, in Ukraine, people are dying, children are in the subway, there is nowhere to sleep, they have lost everything, and you are crying because of Instagram,” one person commented in response to Buzova’s post.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, tweeted that Russia's ban would leave 80 million people cut off from one another and “from the rest of the world” and added “this is wrong”.
On Monday, Instagram will be blocked in Russia. This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world as ~80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country. This is wrong.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 11, 2022
The ban comes as some of the glamorous rich kids of Russia took to social media last week to urging Mr Putin to stop the war on Ukraine.
The daughters of cashed-up Russian oligarchs and political power players – some of whom have close personal ties to Putin himself – have taken to Instagram, using their social media influence to try and stop more bloodshed.
Among them are several socialites and Instagram influencers boasting hundreds of thousands of followers, who are the children of influential Russian moguls and political identities – and even the granddaughter of the late Russian president, Boris Yeltsin.
Elizaveta Dmitrievna, the daughter of Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, made her anti-Russian violence stance known on Instagram.
Known for her jetsetting lifestyle, Elizaveta denounced Russia’s war on Ukraine to her 300,000 followers on Instagram.
Known as @lisa_peskova on the social media site, she shared news coverage of Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russia conflict, including reposting a video from The Guardian which stated: “This war is so unfair, so unhuman, so unforgivable”, as well as Instagram posts declaring “no to the war”.
She has previously made controversial comments about her family, including a post – translated from Russian – where she reportedly said: “I am Peskova Elizaveta Dmitrievna, daughter of the chief billionaire and thief of the country, press secretary of the head of state. This is the first text that I write myself. All the rest are custom.”
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