Russia opens investigation into ‘Empire of Geese,’ the anime-and-gaming community whose creators allegedly locked children’s computers with ransomware and then demanded nude photos to unlock them

Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed on July 10 that its offices in the Moscow and Sverdlovsk regions are conducting criminal investigations into “unlawful actions against teenagers.” The announcement follows media reports that the creators of the popular online community “Empire of Geese” had coerced teenagers into producing sexualized photos and videos.

“Empire of Geese” was founded in 2014. The project has 350,000 subscribers on YouTube and around 3,000 on Telegram. The community posts music aimed at teenagers who are fans of niche anime and video games.

Several days earlier, on July 7, Anna Levchenko, a human rights activist and leader of the “Sday Pedofila” (“Turn In a Pedophile”) movement, alleged that the creators of “Empire of Geese” had drawn underage fans into producing pornography.

According to Levchenko, group administrators targeted “insecure children who valued the community” and, under various pretexts (such as asking them to vote somewhere), sent links containing ransomware that locked access to their computers. The administrators would then promise to restore access in exchange for intimate photographs. “After that, those who complied were subjected to blackmail: refuse to send new photos and they’ll be shared online, sent to relatives and friends,” she said. Those who refused to give in to the blackmail did indeed find their photos sent to people close to them, she added.

Levchenko said the “Sday Pedofila” movement is aware of 22 victims across Russia, currently between 13 and 22 years old, the majority of them male. Some of the children, according to the activists, were subjected not only to extortion of photographs but also to actual sexual violence.

The Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reviewed accounts from victims and records of their correspondence, finding that many of the teenagers noted how easily their trust had been won, since they were genuine fans of the community.

Ekaterina Mizulina, head of the Safe Internet League, who was contacted by activists from the “Sday Pedofila” project, said there were 24 victims across 12 regions. “The teenagers drawn into the network were required to produce around 40 intimate videos or photos for the organizers every day,” she said.

Mizulina said the community’s creators are Viktor Postnov and Alexey Kuzmin, both living in the Moscow region, and that they allegedly sold the photos and videos obtained from the children to buyers in Latvia and Estonia.

Several children had already filed complaints with law enforcement, Mizulina added. One girl in Yekaterinburg who had been subjected to sexual violence was initially turned away when she tried to file a report, with officials telling her to come back “once a case is opened in Moscow.”

Viktor Postnov, one of the creators of “Empire of Geese,” rejected the accusations in an interview with the network REN TV. He said the community’s creators do not handle moderation — the subscribers do it themselves. He laid the blame for the affair involving “all these photographs” on one such subscriber, who at one point had served as an administrator. “As soon as we learned about the situation — this was two or three years ago — we threw her out right away. We tried not to get into a confrontation with anyone and simply eased her out quietly,” he said.