In Moscow, she is known as the chief censor of the Russian Internet.
Behind the scenes, she secretly shares the life of Vladimir Putin.
Her name: Ekaterina (or “Katya) Mizoulina.
In any case, this is what several British and American tabloids have been reporting for several days, such as the
Mirror
and the
New York Post
, which cite Ukrainian media and independent Russian Telegram channels.
Is this really a surprise?
Not according to Russian human rights activist Olga Romanova.
“Katya Mizulina is very much to Putin’s liking.
This kind of Barbie has always suited her very well,” she says, condescendingly, on the Ukrainian channel Channel 24.
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According to the Russian channel Telegram, Kremlevskaya Tabakerka, the head of the Kremlin and Ekaterina Mizoumina have “become closer recently”.
Nonetheless, the sources who claim this “have been extremely cautious in speaking, as no one can offer 100% confirmation.”
It must be said that Vladimir Putin's private life is a well-kept secret.
Since his divorce in 2013 from Lioudmila, his wife of thirty years, he is in a relationship with the 40-year-old former Olympic gymnast, Alina Kabaeva.
Once a deputy in the Duma (lower house of the Russian Parliament), "even if she didn't really work there", she now lives as a recluse in a presidential residence, with the children (no one knows how many) she allegedly had with the President of Russia.
Never confirmed, their story fuels all fantasies.
A story somewhat darkened by the appearance of the figure of Ekaterina Mizoulina.
Also read: Alina Kabaeva, Vladimir Putin's secret love for fifteen years
Spokesperson for Russian schoolchildren
At 39 years old, Ekaterina Mizoulina is not unknown to the general public.
Born in 1984 in the town of Yaroslavl, 300 kilometers from Moscow, she is the daughter of pro-Putin MP Yelena Mizoulina and professor Mikhail Mizulin, philosopher and academic.
But above all, she is the director of the League for a Safe Internet, the body which administers web censorship in Russia.
In
Le Monde
, we learn that “the primary mission of the organization is to track down and demand the blocking of “dangerous” content on the Internet: online gambling, child crime, “drug propaganda”, according to the term of the Russian Criminal Code.
This mission propelled Katya Mizoulina to the forefront.
On Telegram, her main communication tool, she has 375,000 loyal subscribers, “a good part of whom have limitless passion for her,” we read in
Le Monde
.
And for good reason: Ekaterina Mizoulina has actually become a sort of pop and cool icon since she relayed all the complaints and demands of Russian schoolchildren.
And really all of them: their overloaded days, the weight of their school bags, the faulty heating in the classes, their desire to see skateparks built... This role of relay for the youth ended up paying off.
“Cyberbalance”
At the same time, through her “League for a Safe Internet”, she echoes warlike patriotism and calls for the censorship of rappers, whom she publicly accuses of corrupting society.
As reported by our colleague from Le
Monde
Benoît Vitkine, correspondent in Moscow, this method of denunciation pushed the team of the late Alexeï Navalny, former public enemy number one in Russia, to dedicate an investigation to him in January 2022, titled “Cyberbalance” .
Read alsoDasha Navalnaya, the daughter of Alexeï Navalny, 23 years old and the resistance as a legacy
No matter, if there is one who is satisfied with this system, it is the head of the Kremlin himself, whom Ekaterina Mizulina has supported since the beginning like her mother.
In the Duma, the latter stood out in the 2010s by advocating the ban on homosexuality and the establishment of a tax on divorce, or by calling for the deprogramming of the cartoons
South Park
or
The Simpsons.
, deemed “cynical and extremist”.
However, this did not prevent the MP from sending her daughter “Katya” to London to complete her education.
Ekaterina Mizoulina, in fact, spent some time in the English capital.
In 2004, she graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and began a career as a “philanthropist”, occupying various important positions within Russian charitable organizations.
Her rise will be especially marked by her appointment in 2017 as head of the Russian League for Internet Security, which she has led with an iron fist ever since.