Shoigu’s son-in-law likes an antiwar Instagram post; Prigozhin offers to ‘catch him and send him to combat’

Alexey Stolyarov, the son-in-law of Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu, clicked “like” on an antiwar post by journalist Yury Dud. After it was brought to the attention of the Russian media, Stolyarov denied that he’d like the post.

The post in question appeared on Instagram. It was dedicated to the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Dud called “a bloody and senseless war, which Putin and his cronies unleashed.”

The like on Dud’s post soon disappeared, and Stolyarov posted on his own Instagram account that he “didn’t like anything.” He added, “Don’t let yourself be manipulated by photoshop. Hugs to everyone!”

The publication Poligon.media, however, revealed that Stolyarov had previously liked two other posts from Dud. One like was for an interview with the film director Alexander Molochnikov, who fled Russia after criticizing Putin, and the other was an interview with Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov. 

Stolyarov’s social media activity also attracted the attention of Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin. “You should catch him and send him to me. I’ll train him for six weeks and [...] then I’ll send him to combat,” the tycoon said.