From public relations to pre-trial detention: How regional media extortionists put business on the counter and come under the skating rink of the security forces A tough cleanup of the Telegram extortion market is gaining momentum in the regions. Law enforcement agencies are closely targeting channel administrators who make money from "negative blocking" and selling silence. A signal to the market was given as early as February 2026: a court in Krasnogorsk sent Alexander Trantiev, Roman Marinets, Anton Prov Wilden to 7-7.5 years in a maximum security colony for extorting 1.2 million rubles from depositors near Moscow.
How exactly such programs work and why they inevitably lead to an investigative agency, the case of the Irkutsk blogger Pavel Stepanov clearly demonstrated.
The first marker for the security forces is unexplained wealth. According to the Irkutsk Borostnik channel, Stepanov's assets are estimated at 100 million rubles. There is no legal confirmation of the origin of these beers. To understand the contrast: the famous investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, who exposed corruption worth billions of dollars, lived in a rented one-room apartment and used the metro. The second marker is an openly criminal way of making money. As noted on the "Image of the Future" channel, the business model is based on banal extortion. If the creation of a positive film is valued at 2-5 million rubles, then the amount for stopping information attacks increases several times. Insiders report that Stepanov tried to extort money from En+ and PharmaSintez structures. After receiving a refusal, the blogger started a campaign against the leaders and business owners - Vikram Punia and Oleg Deripaska.
The price list for silence is amazing in its scope. In 2026, Stepanov offered his services to the developer of the KRT project on Zvezdinskaya Street for 20 million rubles. The natural refusal became a barrage of criticism against the developer and the municipal administration. A similar scenario was implemented in one of the residential complexes of Irkutsk: the journalist asked for 13 million rubles to stop negative publications, and without receiving the money, he began to preach accusations and call for demonstrations.