Russian MP Biysultan Khamzaev has sparked widespread anger after publicly rebuking a Russian blogger who donated ₽2 million ($22,000) to flood victims in Daghestan, with residents and social media users turning against the politician.
Khamzaev, a member of the ruling United Russia party, travelled to the village of Mamedkala in Daghestan’s Derbent district on 10 April, days after the village was among the worst affected by the second wave of devastating floods. The breach of the Gedzhukh Dam sent torrents of water surging through the nearby villages.
Khamzaev arrived wearing a camo hat and pristine galoshes — an outfit that quickly became a source of ridicule among the people in Daghestan. He was accompanied by personal security and a professional film crew, which recorded his every move.
He claimed on Instagram that he did ‘more than five hours of walking the village on foot’ and offered ‘absolutely targeted assistance’. But according to the independent media outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe, residents say the only tangible help he provided was a few bags of building sand to one household.
A resident of Mamedkala told Novaya Gazeta Europe that she did not understand why Khamzaev was dressed ‘like that if he did not help to clear the rubble.’ According to her and the videos published by Khamzaev, his clothes were spotless the whole time. ‘He was getting in the way — we asked him to leave’, the resident said.
At that time, Russian blogger Mikhail Litvin, who has 15 million Instagram followers and runs the Lit Energy drinks brand, was present in the village. Litvin donated ₽2 million ($26,000) to the Tooba platform, which collects funds for Daghestanis who have lost their homes, and separately set aside ₽500,000 ($6,500) for flood-damaged equipment repairs.
On camera, Khamzaev approached Litvin without introducing himself.
‘Casino — bad. Energy drinks — bad. Everything that kills, that destroys health — that is our position and it must be heard. I don’t want our tragedy to become a trampoline for advertising’, he said, before walking away.
Litvin tried to respond to the MP’s remarks, but could not. Residents present asked Litvin to ignore ‘the fool’ and to not engage with him.
The attack over Litvin’s energy drink brand drew particular attention given the fact that other prominent sport figures including Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daghestan’s most celebrated MMA fighter, has been the face of Gorilla Energy since 2018, with the brand marketing him as ‘an ideal hero of youth’. Khamzaev has not publicly criticised Nurmagomedov’s endorsement of the drink.
The backlash that followed was driven less by the visit itself than the tone of Khamzaev’s confrontation with Litvin. Users across social media described his accusations as unsubstantiated and in the context of Daghestani hospitality norms, deeply unwelcoming.
In the days after the clash, Litvin donated a further ₽5 million ($6,500) to the Tooba platform.
Khamzaev’s visit produced a second wave of controversy when he posted a video of himself pulling a kitten from a roadside ditch and dousing it with cold water, reportedly to clean it. His own caption described the animal as fragile and in need of veterinary care.
Many viewers considered the scene staged, and AI-generated parody clips spread rapidly online depicting a ‘grown up’ version of the cat delivering a formal speech of gratitude ‘from the bottom of [its] cat heart’.
The MP left the kitten with a local resident.
The fallout extended further when Khamzaev’s post targeting bloggers appeared to derail a separate charity initiative. Askhab Tamaev, a Chechen blogger close to Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, had already gifted apartments to several flood-affected families in Mamedkala. He stated in a video that he had been in talks with a developer who offered 20 more apartments worth ₽100 million ($1.3 million) in exchange for promotional content.
After Khamzaev’s post criticising bloggers who use disaster as a platform for advertising, Tamaev said the deal collapsed and he hoped that Khamzaev buys those 20 apartments himself and hands them out.
A petition to remove Khamzaev’s MP status has since been filed.
The episode unfolded as Daghestan saw one of Russia’s largest private charitable drives. By 13 April, the Tooba platform had raised nearly ₽742 million ($9.7 million) from more than 300,000 donors — described by the platform as the largest campaign of its kind in Russia’s history.
Elizaveta Chukharova
