The deputy speaker of Russia’s lower-house of parliament has accused pro-Kremlin censorship advocate Yekaterina Mizulina of mismanaging public funds and harassing musicians.
The dispute erupted after State Demua Deputy Speaker Vladislav Davankov, who leads the liberal New People party, asked police to investigate extortion claims against Mizulina made by the ex-wife of underground rapper Pasha Technique, who died earlier this month.
According to a letter Davankov sent to Russia’s interior minister, and later shared by journalist Ksenia Sobchak, Mizulina initially urged police to investigate Pasha Technique for alleged “drug propaganda.” However, no charges were filed, and the matter was reportedly “settled” informally.
Mizulina responded by asking police to investigate Davankov for slander and requested that State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin reprimand him for allegedly violating parliamentary ethics. She denounced his actions as a “smear campaign.”
On Monday night, Davankov challenged Mizulina to appear before parliament with an explanation of how she resolved the “drug propaganda” allegations and how one of her organizations spent 200 million rubles ($2.4 million) in state funding.
“You’ve built your career demanding investigations into bloggers and musicians,” Davankov wrote on Telegram. “You’ve exhausted millions of people with your calls to ban, inspect and imprison. Why don’t you like being scrutinized yourself?”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Mizulina — who heads the Safe Internet League, a group known for filing complaints against anti-war content creators — had not responded.
The EU sanctioned Mizulina and the Safe Internet League last year for their role in reinforcing state censorship in Russia.
In his Telegram post, Davankov argued that Mizulina’s slander complaint could set a precedent that applies to her own past actions.
“You’ve slandered more than a dozen people and built a career on serial denunciation,” he wrote. “Are you ready to be consistent in your logic and apologize to everyone you’ve unfairly denounced?”
The Safe Internet League was co-founded by Orthodox businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, according to the EU’s sanctions listing. Mizulina, 40, is also the daughter of former senator Yelena Mizulina, who has been under Western sanctions since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
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