Liya Akhedzhakova: “The image is created that I water everyone and everything”

People’s artist Liya Akhedzhakova, who has been the victim of fake news more than once in recent years, decided to put an end to provocations. This summer, at her request, a criminal libel case was initiated, which, however, is currently suspended (according to MK, the prosecutor’s office intends to cancel this decision). The fake statements that have been circulated on her behalf this year pose a threat not only to her reputation, but also to her life.

Who launched a large-scale information war against the artist and how she perceives it – in the material of the MK columnist.

For the first time, Liya Akhedzhakova decided to take fake information about herself seriously at the beginning of last year. Then, in the name of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Igor Krasnov, an appeal was received from the artist, where she talked about the creation on her behalf of fake accounts on the social networks Twitter, Telegram and VKontakte. Liya Medzhidovna asked for a prosecutor’s check to identify those who are trying to discredit her. But nothing really happened. Moreover, none of the fake accounts has been deleted.

The situation became more complicated when the media reported that the artist allegedly handed over the money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and was leaving Russia.

Since this is not a simple provocation, but with possible bad consequences for Akhedzhakova (say, the initiation of a criminal case under the article “Financing of terrorism”), she turned to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

I quote this statement filed by lawyer Maev: “False information was disseminated by dozens of media and online publications, which gave rise to an extensive discussion on the Internet. Users posted a large number of critical comments about the actress, often offensive; all these comments are easy to see by using a search engine.

I draw your attention to the fact that Liya Medzhidovna has never registered accounts in social networks, has not administered them, and is not an active Internet user at all.

On February 27, 2022, on the website of the Sovremennik Theater, where L.M. Akhedzhakova serves, a refutation was published as follows: “In this regard, we hasten to refute the information published today on Instagram on behalf of Leah Akhedzhakova. The @l_ahedzhakova account is a fake created by an anonymous user.

The information posted on this page about her intention to leave the country, as well as about donating funds to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has nothing to do with reality.”

I believe that the actions of the persons who disseminated the above phrases should be qualified under Part 5 of Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since they were combined with the accusation of my client of committing a particularly serious crime (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).”

And a criminal case of libel against unidentified persons was nevertheless initiated.

“But soon the police of the Airport police department for unreasonable reasons suspended it,” says lawyer Alexander Maev. “They were unable to find the perpetrators. However, it doesn’t look like they’re looking for anyone at all. This is the attitude…

The other day I was at the prosecutor’s office of the Savelovsky district, they promised to cancel the decision to suspend the case on my complaint. But in general, this is surprising: the whole country knows Akhedzhakova, and law enforcement officers do not want to make at least some effort to find her offenders. We wrote a total of three statements to the Prosecutor General, she reacted every time, but the police are inactive.

Before me is the last explanation given by Leah Akhedzhakova in the criminal case on October 20, 2022:

“In mid-May 2022, my lawyer and I became aware that accounts were registered on the Telegram social network on my behalf. They are marked with avatars with my photo images.

Through these telegram channels, people unknown to me distributed texts to an unlimited number of people, the authorship of which I have nothing to do with. In terms of content, they are phenomena of a political or provocative nature.

In the chat of the telegram channel (calls him. – Note. ed.) the fictional Leah Akhedzhakova is constantly debating with her subscribers. At the same time, she uses obscene language and harshly criticizes subscribers, for which they insult her. The internal affairs bodies are inactive and issue legally untenable resolutions-replies. I ask you to appoint a linguistic examination of texts at the Institute of the Russian Language named after V.V. Vinogradov of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

— Liya Medzhidovna, what hurt you the most about the fake news about you or those filed on your behalf lately? I ask the people’s favorite.

“To be honest, I’m already used to everything. They present me as a terribly brave, outspoken and stupid artist who flaunts her frilly citizenship. It looks like something, but it’s not me. And an image is created that I water everyone and everything.

“Why would anyone imagine you like this?”

– How do I know? No wonder these people work. Or maybe it’s the ones I know. By the way, even partners from the theater say all sorts of things about me on YouTube. I saw Sasha Kakhun telling me that I hate everyone and water everyone.

Sasha is a good actor and a decent person, why did he decide that I was evil? And I, on the contrary, became so tearful from sympathy and from pain.

– And how do you explain to yourself that you became a target for trolls?

– This is all the dehumanization that seized the population. Whether it was propaganda that gave such a terrible effect, or whether this is how the desire of individuals to curry favor is manifested. There are probably those who want to build a reputation that makes them feel safe.

The world has split. And a bad opinion about me is the position of people who do not share my ideas about today. I feel their hatred, but love from others is more.

Why didn’t Roskomnadzor block fake accounts created on your behalf?

– I do not think that they are fans of my work and my civic position. I’ve been trying to keep a low profile lately and be very careful about expressing my opinions and my preferences. And all because of the fact that she was very worried about her performance “The First Bread”. Viewers perceive it in such a way that it is touching to tears. I have never seen such an attitude.

This performance, as it were, spoke for me, and I wanted to keep it. But, alas, it was not possible to save. After the director was removed, my performance disappeared, like many others. What can you say? I have no future, because I am not a young man, and in my theater there is no artistic director, with the help of which my further creative destiny can be formed.

– Will your performance return in the near future?

I am a strong pessimist. I don’t believe that anything will change in my lifetime.