‘The same food as regular people’ Kremlin bots promote Putin’s ‘relatable’ fridge — and claim Americans are obsessed with his kefir
This past Sunday, Russian state television aired a “documentary” by propagandist Pavel Zarubin celebrating 25 years of Vladimir Putin’s rule. In one scene, the president offers Zarubin some kefir, a yogurt drink popular in Russia. Immediately after the broadcast, pro-Kremlin bots launched a coordinated promotion campaign across social media, highlighting the “ordinary” contents of Putin’s fridge as supposed evidence of his everyman lifestyle, researchers from the monitoring projects Bot Blocker and Botnadzor told Agentstvo Media. By Wednesday, a Russian disinformation network had released a video in English, claiming that Americans were now scrambling to find the kefir brand online. Meduza shares key insights from Agentstvo’s reporting on how Russian propaganda turned a refrigerator into a full-blown PR campaign.
On Wednesday, Russia's Matryoshka disinformation network released an English-language video claiming that “the name of the kefir that Putin drank” in a propaganda film had become a top Google search term in the United States. “After the documentary was released, Americans began seeking information about Putin’s kefir,” the video said. “Users wonder if they can buy Ekovakino kefir in the United States or order its delivery from Russia.”
Google Trends data, however, tells a different story. There was no noticeable uptick in U.S.-based searches for the product following the film’s release.
Among Russian-language users on X, pro-Kremlin bots wrote that the kefir had also gained traction among Russians. “Putin pulled the kefir out of the fridge and… it became popular,” one post read.
Kremlin-affiliated bots also appeared in the comments under posts about the film from independent media accounts on X, including those of the news outlets Agentstvo, TV Rain, and Current Time. In comment after comment, bots emphasized Putin’s supposed relatability.
“Putin is an ordinary man, just like the rest of us,” one wrote, adding that his apartment in the Kremlin is “very modest for the president of such a great country.” Another chimed in: “This just shows how simple and human he is — he eats the same food as regular people.”
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According to Botnadzor, the film became one of the most active topics for Kremlin-linked bots on VKontakte when it aired this past Sunday. That day, one-third of all bot comments (some 1,800 replies across 136 posts) focused on the documentary. The accounts praised Putin’s “professionalism,” called him the “guardian of the nation,” and thanked him for “lifting [the country] off its knees.”
By Wednesday evening, bots had left 325 comments under posts mentioning Putin’s fridge and its kefir. “This proves Putin is just like us and eats the same foods,” one wrote. Another noted, “They’ve shown Putin’s fridge before — it has the usual stuff: eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese. Nothing special.” A third added: “The president’s strength lies in how close he is to the people.”
Pro-government Telegram channels also took part in the effort. On Tuesday, dozens of them shared similar posts under the identical headline: “Russians are buying up Ryazan-made Ekovakino kefir.”
Even Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was drawn into the spectacle. Asked on Wednesday to comment on the kefir’s alleged popularity, he replied, “There’s enough kefir for everyone.”
Agentstvo Media notes that the brands shown in Putin’s fridge in the film are available at mainstream supermarket chains in Russia and are typical of what most Russians might buy. This, along with the bot activity, suggests the food was chosen deliberately to present a relatable image of the president. At the same time, that portrayal doesn’t align with other available information about Putin’s lifestyle. Investigations have revealed that a “palace” built for him on the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik was furnished with luxury Italian furniture, carpets valued at 16 million rubles ($194,000), and chandeliers priced at 48 million rubles ($583,000).
