Russian Police Accuse Dubai-Based Instagram Influencer of Tax Evasion

Russian law enforcement authorities on Wednesday announced tax evasion charges against a social media influencer who markets self-help courses on Instagram.

Inna Tliashinova owes the government 431 million rubles ($5.3 million) in back taxes and fines accrued from 2020 to 2022, according to the Moscow branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes.

The law enforcement agency said an arrest warrant has been issued for Tliashinova, and investigators plan to ask a judge to arrest her in absentia.

Tliashinova, whose Instagram page states that she lives in Dubai, faces up to three years in Russian prison on tax evasion charges and up to seven years in prison on money laundering charges.

The United Arab Emirates and Russia signed an extradition treaty in 2014.

Tliashinova, 43, is at least the fifth Russian influencer and life coach to be charged with tax evasion since 2023, according to the exiled news outlet Mediazona. She advertises herself as an “expert on subconsciousness” and sells courses on healing negative transgenerational family patterns, as well as “activating sexual energy to easily receive money and gifts.”

According to Mediazona, Tliashinova said in one of her courses that she is a native of southern Russia’s Rostov region, a mother of four and an author of educational projects on the subconscious with a “turnover of 200 million rubles” ($2.5 million).

Russia’s Federal Tax Service reportedly began investigating tax-evading influencers whose earnings exceed 150 million rubles ($1.8 million) in early 2022, the same year Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia banned U.S. social media giant Meta — the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — by declaring it “extremist” in the early weeks of the 2022 invasion.

Many Russians continue to access Instagram and Facebook through VPNs.

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