The case of the blogger Subo. What is the author of the police prank accused of?

A criminal case on tax evasion and money laundering has been opened against blogger Subkhan Mammadov, known under the pseudonym Subo. He became famous for pranks on random passers-by and police officers. In February 2025, Mammadov was stripped of his Russian citizenship. What the blogger with 14 million subscribers is accused of is in the Izvestia article.

What is the Subo accused of?

• A criminal case against Subo has been initiated under two articles: on tax evasion on an especially large scale (Part 2 of Article 198 of the Criminal Code) and money laundering (paragraph "b" of Part 4 of Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code). The investigation is being handled by the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Moscow region.

• Similar charges have been brought against his brother Samir Mammadov and their father Murad. From 2020 to 2022, they created a tax evasion scheme that allowed them to avoid paying more than 50 million rubles to the state revenue. With the help of these criminally obtained funds, they bought a premium brand car for 10 million rubles. The late payment of the tax led to arrears of penalties and fines in the amount of 20 million rubles.

• Subo is located outside of Russia, and therefore he was put on the wanted list. A preventive measure was imposed on his brother in the form of house arrest, and their father was placed on his own recognizance. It is assumed that Samir Mammadov helped Subo sell off property, including apartments and cars, after his departure to Dubai.

What is the famous Subo?

• Subkhan Mammadov was born in 1999 in Moscow to an Azerbaijani family. After school, he entered the Bauman Moscow State Technical University to study engineering business. He combined his studies with playing football, thanks to which he met the pranker blogger Mikhail Litvin. Together they began to arrange practical jokes and post them on Instagram (owned by Meta, a company whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), where Mammadov became known under the nickname Subo.

Mammadov usually used random passers-by in his pranks. The blogger could grab strangers by the hand, scare them, or take things away. Mammadov also recorded videos in which he took things out of the cafe, entered the kitchen or drove almost naked on the roof of a car. In 2019, he tried to run onto the field during a football match between Lokomotiv and Juventus, but fell from the stands and broke his arm. Such sweepstakes have brought Subo popularity, he has gained more than 14 million followers on Instagram and more than 1.6 million on YouTube.

• In addition to creating trash content, Mammadov is engaged in business. In 2023, he announced the opening of a burger joint in the center of Moscow, and in honor of this event, he promised to feed visitors for free for two days, which led to the formation of long queues.

• Subo is also known as a rapper. He has recorded several tracks, including with artists such as T-Killah, Glucose, Genimi and Ganesti. In 2019, the blogger opened for Jennifer Lopez's concert in Moscow.

How Subo was stripped of his citizenship

• Mammadov used police officers in several of his pranks. In one of the videos he posted, he asked the guards where the trash can was (there was a reference to offensive jargon here), and in another he brandished a pistol next to traffic police officers. One day, Mammadov disguised himself as a policeman and, under the pretext of official necessity, stopped a passing car in order to get behind the wheel himself.

• After such practical jokes, an investigation was launched against Mammadov. During the investigation, it turned out that the blogger had provided false information about himself when he received Russian citizenship. In February 2025, he had his Russian passport revoked and was banned from entering Russia for 70 years. Mammadov still has Azerbaijani citizenship, according to which he lives in the UAE.