Former Russian journalist, blogger and foreign agent Yuri Dud, seems to have finally said goodbye to Russia: he closed the IP and transferred the brand “vDud” to the Spanish company. He decided to settle in Barcelona.
Life found out that the Spanish company Butovo Production SL, which received an object of intellectual property – the name of the YouTube project “vDud” – appeared quite recently, was registered to Dud himself at the end of May 2022 and, according to the report, works as an advertising agency.
How a blogger settled in Barcelona
Information appeared on the Web that, after being recognized as a foreign agent, Yuri Dud left Russia and settled in Spain, where he allegedly bought real estate with an area of 82 square meters in Barcelona for 550 thousand euros (about 35 million rubles at the exchange rate at the time of purchase). Say, according to the documents, the premises are designated as a warehouse, but he also has residential real estate at his disposal.
The central street of Barcelona is Diagonal Avenue. Fugitive blogger Yuri Dud settled in this houseThe legal address of the company Dudya: Avenida Diagonal, 497 – P5, Barcelona, 08029. This is a 9-storey building with number 497, built in 1959 and located in the central part of the city, on the famous Diagonal Avenue, crossing almost the entire metropolis. The blogger has at his disposal premises on the fifth floor of the building.
The blogger’s home can be located here. On Spanish real estate sites in a building on the fifth floor, several premises with a total area of about 470 square meters are sold at once with an initial cost of 540 thousand euros. This is comparable to information about the cost of a blogger’s apartment in Spain. It seems that one of them now belongs to Yuri Dudyu.
Here are housing and a studio for recording Yuri Dud’s videos.What Dud bought a house in Barcelona
With all the failures of recent years (several lost lawsuits, large fines and recognition as a foreign agent), Yuri Dud was the only one among the six richest YouTubers who over the past year managed to multiply their income from the channel: from 36.3 million rubles in 2021 to 59 3 million rubles in the past. The richest bloggers in Russia Wylsacom (Valentin Petukhov), Alexey Pivovarov, Ilya Varlamov, Ksenia Sobchak and Irina Shikhman, who competed with Dud, noticeably became poorer.
In the summer, information appeared that Yuri Dud was selling his 50-square-meter apartment, located on the attic floor of the Danilovskaya Manufactory residential complex, next to the Tulskaya metro station, for 25 million rubles. And just a few days later, the cost of the lot grew by another 5 million rubles.
Photos of the premises also surfaced, and for a long time netizens could not understand how a family of four could live in one room (Dud himself, his wife Olga and two minor children).
Photo from the seller’s Instagram
In fact, this is not Dud’s only housing in Moscow. Life found out that a three-ruble note was recorded on the head of the family on Yuzhnobutovskaya Street. An apartment with an area of 80 square meters is located in a brick 13-storey building in the metropolitan area of Yuzhnoye Butovo. Housing of the same area here now costs about 16 million rubles. The blogger became the owner of the property back in 2012.
It is worth noting that the family of Dud’s wife also lives in Yuzhny Butovo – Olga Boneva. The girl’s parents owned several apartments here. One of them is located on the 26th floor of the tower on Poliany Street. Here the Bonevs own about 100 sq. m. m.
It is quite possible that the blogger gave the name of his Spanish company – Butovo production – in memory of his real place of residence, and he used the apartments on Tulskaya for filming his videos or as a “swing” housing.
Nice low brick houses in South Butovo. It was here that the family of Yuri Dudya livedHow Dud became a foreign agent and left Russia
In Russia, the journalist became popular in the Russian-language YouTube, on the site of which, since 2017, he has been hosting the author’s Internet show VDud. The show takes place in the format of an interview, during communication various shameful revelations, frivolous behavior, questions “below the belt” and, of course, mate are allowed. From time to time, documentaries were also released on the channel.
Over the years of the platform’s operation, the journalist’s political position has become clear: he is most often aired by Russian oppositionists, people with a criminal record with a political color, liberally oriented rappers, comedians, performance artists, fugitive politicians and businessmen who have been prosecuted in Russia . To meet with the latter, Dud traveled abroad: to London, the United States, Israel, etc.
The blogger used the same approach in relation to Belarus in 2020 – during and immediately after the August riots that accompanied the presidential elections. Then the founders and employees of NEXTA, banned in the republic, appeared on its airs, Dud made a big interview with a Belarusian opposition comedian Slava Komissarenko.
Needless to say, the blogger severely criticized the beginning of the Russian Military District in Ukraine and blamed Russia for everything.
In addition to politics, in his show, the blogger often raised slippery topics like drug use or homosexual relationships. Sooner or later, this should have been of interest to law enforcement agencies.
In the summer of 2021, the Zyuzinsky District Court of Moscow considered a case of drug propaganda, which was seen in two interviews with Dud: with blogger Ivangay and rapper Morgenstern. Then the court found him guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 100 thousand rubles. And last year, the Lefortovo court found him guilty of distributing gay propaganda and fined him 120,000 rubles.
On April 15, 2022, the Ministry of Justice recognized Yuri Dudya as a foreign agent, after which the blogger, it seems, decided to leave Russia.
Blogger Dud’s roots are in Ukraine
By nationality, Yuri Dud is Ukrainian. His family is from the western part of the country. In Soviet times, my father served in the military in the GDR, and in the same place – in Potsdam – in 1986 the future blogger was born.
After the service, the family returned to Ukraine, and then moved to Moscow. Alexander Dud served in the structures of the Ministry of Defense, taught and headed the department at the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. As Life found out, Dudya’s mother also worked in it.
In 2008, Dud Sr. defended his doctoral dissertation and since then has been teaching at the Moscow State Technical University. N.E. Bauman. In recent years, he has been a professor. Among university students, he is nicknamed Cartoon.
Alexander DudFor a long time, the Dud family lived in the departmental apartment of the Ministry of Defense in the Eastern District of Moscow.
In 2007, the Combined Arms Academy transferred two apartments in the Lefortovo metropolitan area with a total area of 92 squares to the blogger Anna Dud’s mother.
Dud Sr. still has an anonymous VK account, which the man used to communicate with Ukrainian relatives and friends. There are only 12 people on his contact list, most of them live in the Ternopil and Lviv regions of Ukraine. Among them are also relatives with the same surname.
