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Russian designer tells host to ‘suck it’ on popular internet show, sparking backlash

Source: Meduza

Note: This article contains explicit language and references to sexual content.

A new episode of Natalnaya Karta — one of the most popular entertainment shows on the Russian internet — aired last Friday, April 17. The show’s hosts, comedians Olesya Ivanchenko and Dmitry Zhuravlev, analyze a guest’s natal chart and ask them questions. The guest on the new episode was designer and pro-Kremlin propagandist Artemy Lebedev.

Lebedev opened by saying he does not believe in astrology. When Ivanchenko, who had drawn up his natal chart and asked him to comment on its findings, posed questions, he answered in monosyllables and was frequently sarcastic. Ivanchenko gave as good as she got, while trying to draw him into fuller and more candid responses. Zhuravlev worked to defuse the tension and support his colleague, calling Lebedev’s behavior a provocation not worth taking the bait on.

The tension between the hosts and their guest peaked toward the end of the first hour of the show, which runs 2 hours in total. Ivanchenko was asking Lebedev about his personal life, and he had no interest in answering. “Come on, don’t be shy! Tell us something!” she said. “No, let’s leave my personal life out of it,” Lebedev replied. “Then what am I supposed to do with this whole round?” the host asked, throwing up her hands. “Suck it,” the guest said.

Zhuravlev called the response another Lebedev provocation and urged Ivanchenko not to take the bait. She demanded an apology. He apologized. “You behaved badly. Unworthy of your Venus in Pisces. And just unworthy of a man […] You’re a grown 50-year-old guy,” Ivanchenko said. The video then cuts to an edit, after which Ivanchenko continued hosting the show.

Fifteen minutes later she again reproached Lebedev for not answering questions. “It would be great if you’d let your guard down a little, but you don’t want to. […] I say: I’m struggling. You say: just deal with it. […] Let’s find some human thread of conversation,” Ivanchenko said. “Ask a normal question,” Lebedev replied.

After that, the host burst into tears — but quickly composed herself and continued analyzing Lebedev’s natal chart.

Ivanchenko posted the clip on her Instagram and received a flood of sympathetic comments from ordinary users and celebrities alike. “Olesyaaaaaa❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️” wrote singer Sergei Lazarev. “I can’t imagine what it took not to walk off set,” said host Irena Ponaroshku. ”😭 what an ass,” wrote host Ksenia Borodina of Lebedev. “In almost any other country, that would have been his last interview,” wrote blogger Polina Brzhezinska. “Let’s beat the crap out of him so his face and hair are the same color, so to speak,” wrote actress and comedian Marina Fedunkiv.

Host Anfisa Chekhova called Lebedev’s behavior “emotional abuse.” “Knowing that the host cannot stop filming — it’s her job, and there’s a huge crew behind the camera whose time costs money — Artemy, with the exquisite pleasure of a sadist, poured on the sarcasm, crossing into outright insults!” Chekhova said on Instagram. She expressed hope that Lebedev would apologize to Ivanchenko, and if he did not, called on women to unite and fight back against “demonstrative abuse on screen.”

Blogger Victoria Bonya also weighed in. “Are these really traditional values — when adult men during a live broadcast allow themselves to insult women, call them ‘escorts,’ ‘old hags,’ and tell them to go suck it? […] Why are people like this in the public eye today, representing the interests of our people? Isn’t it time they retired?” she said. Her complaints were directed not only at Lebedev, who had insulted Ivanchenko, but also at propagandist Vladimir Solovyov and State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov, who had insulted her after her address to Putin. Bonya’s outrage has already resonated on social media, where users — men and women alike — are calling for Lebedev, Milonov, and Solovyov to be “canceled.”

Some commenters on the Ivanchenko-Lebedev conflict argued that the host herself had been aggressive toward the guest and had made inappropriate remarks. “OK, let’s pretend Olesya wasn’t labeling Artemy the whole episode. One word was out of line, he behaved disgustingly, but Olesya was toxic the whole episode too,” read one comment under Ivanchenko’s Instagram post.

“After the reels I didn’t even want to watch the episode, I was so angry at him [Lebedev]! But after watching I changed my mind: from the very start Olesya was very nervous and biased against the guest, and he politely held his tongue many times in response to completely rude remarks disguised as expert opinion. […] The word ‘suck it’ sounds harsh, but if you know the backstory from the roast show, there’s nothing wrong with the remark either,” read another comment.

Ivanchenko responded to the uproar with a post that could be described as conciliatory. “What an episode that was. Probably the hardest one for me in the entire history of our show. Reactions are mixed, and that’s fine. But excuse me — why exactly was I supposed to keep it together? […] You spend two weeks preparing, trying to get to some depth with the subject, you do a lot of work — however easy it looks on screen — and it gets devalued about every second. Yes, it’s a show. But I’m also a human being who has the right to any real reaction. I hold no grudge against Artemy. It just didn’t happen. And that happens too. Thank you all!”

Lebedev is known for his provocative statements. In 2024, in an interview with journalist Yury Dud, he called the League of Safe Internet “a piece of shit on a stick.” Dud also quoted another Lebedev interview in which he used the obscene-sounding word ”pizdulina,” and asked whether it was a play on the surname of Yekaterina Mizulina, head of the League of Safe Internet. Lebedev said it was “Aesopian language for describing turbopatriots” but denied that the word was derived from Mizulina’s name.

After that interview, Mizulina announced her intention to sue. Lebedev apologized to her, but that did not stop her from filing a defamation suit naming both Lebedev and Dud as defendants. In spring 2025, a court ordered them to pay 300,000 and 200,000 rubles respectively. “You don’t mess with girls. You’ll be eating dust,” Mizulina wrote on her Telegram channel after the ruling. She had originally sought 10 million rubles in damages but did not press for that amount.