On 11 November 2023, Russian state-controlled news agency TASS said that the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office had begun an investigation into journalist and blogger Yuri Dud for possible “discreditation” of the Russian army. Authorities planned the investigation after Dud published an interview with Russian singer Vika Tsiganova and her husband Vadim, in which he asked about their attitude towards Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Dud left Russia following the start of the full-scale war, while Vika and Vadim Tsiganov currently reside in Russia.
A former sports journalists, Dud regularly publishes interviews on Youtube with Russian public personalities, which are usually seen by several million viewers.