Russian blogger Yelena Blinovskaya arrested at border, marking latest in string of tax evasion cases against Instagram personalities

Russian law enforcement officers have arrested blogger Yelena Blinovskaya on suspicion of tax evasion and large-scale money laundering, the country’s Investigative Committee reported on Thursday.

According to the agency, Blinovskaya was apprehended while attempting to cross the state border in a rented vehicle. She reportedly had plane tickets to another country in her possession.

The Telegram channels Baza and Mash reported that Blinovskaya was accompanied by a driver and a bodyguard, and that the arrest occurred on Thursday morning in Russia’s Smolensk region, which borders Belarus. Citing a source, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the arrest occurred at the Krasnaya Gorka border crossing point between Russia and Belarus. According to the channel 112, Blinovskaya had a ticket from Moscow to Almaty, which she may have been using to divert the authorities’ attention.

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Blinovskaya and alleges that she failed to pay more than 918 million rubles ($11.3 million) in owed taxes. Law enforcement has raided her home and her office.

Yelena Blinovskaya rose to fame as a blogger, a TV host, and a creator of popular self-help courses. According to Forbes Russia, in 2020, her audience consisted of 100,000 people, and her courses made 330 million rubles (about $4 million) in revenue.

In March of this year, the Investigative Committee opened criminal cases against two other popular Instagram bloggers, Valeria Chekalina and her husband Artyom Chekalin, on similar charges.