Former Russian journalist and blogger, who is now considered a foreign agent, Yuri Dudseems to have bid farewell to Russia by closing his individual enterprise and transferring the brand “vDud” to a Spanish company. He has decided to make Barcelona his new home.
It was discovered that the Spanish company Butovo Production SL, which acquired the rights to the name of the YouTube project “vDud”, was recently registered under Dud's name at the end of May 2022. It reportedly operates as an advertising agency.
Yuri Dud's Move to Barcelona
Reports have surfaced online suggesting that after being labeled a foreign agent, Yuri Dud left Russia and relocated to Spain. Allegedly, he purchased an 82-square-meter property in Barcelona for 550,000 euros (approximately 35 million rubles at the time of purchase). Although officially designated as a warehouse, the space also serves as residential property.
Dudya's company is registered at Avenida Diagonal, 497 – P5, Barcelona, 08029. The property is located on the fifth floor of a 9-storey building constructed in 1959 positioned on the prominent Diagonal Avenue, spanning the entire metropolis.
It is likely that one of the several properties on the fifth floor of the building is now owned by Yuri Dudya, as multiple spaces totaling about 470 square meters are currently listed for sale at an initial price of 540,000 euros. This parallels the reported value of the blogger’s apartment in Spain.
How Dudya Acquired a House in Barcelona
Despite recent setbacks, including numerous legal battles, hefty fines, and being labeled a foreign agent, Yuri Dud was the only one out of the six wealthiest YouTubers to significantly increase his channel's earnings in the past year, climbing from 36.3 million rubles in 2021 to 59.3 million rubles. Other prominent Russian bloggers, such as Wylsacom (Valentin Petukhov), Alexey Pivovarov, Ilya Varlamov, Ksenia Sobchak, and Irina Shikhman, experienced notable declines in their wealth when compared to Dud.
During the summer, reports emerged of Yuri Dud selling his 50-square-meter attic apartment located near the Tulskaya metro station for 25 million rubles. Shortly thereafter, the price increased by an additional 5 million rubles.
Photos of the property became public, leading many to question how a family of four could live in a single room (consisting of Dud, his wife Olga, and two young children).
In actuality, this is not Dud’s sole residence in Moscow. It was revealed that the family owns an 80-square meter apartment on Yuzhnobutovskaya Street, located in a 13-storey brick building in the Yuzhnoye Butovo area. Comparable properties in the same area are currently priced at around 16 million rubles. The blogger acquired this property in 2012.
It's important to mention that Dud's wife's family also lives in Yuzhny Butovo. Olga BonevaThe girl's parents owned multiple apartments here, including one on the 26th floor of the tower on Poliany Street. The Bonevs own about 100 square meters there.
The blogger may have named his Spanish company, Butovo production, after his real place of residence, and used the apartments on Tulskaya for filming his videos or as a temporary housing option.
How Dud became a foreign agent and left Russia
In Russia, the journalist gained popularity on Russian-language YouTube, where he has been hosting the VDud Internet show since 2017. The show features interviews with various revelations, casual behavior, and sometimes explicit content. Documentaries have also been released on the channel.
Over the years, the journalist's political stance has become clear: he often interviews Russian oppositionists, individuals with criminal records tied to politics, liberally oriented rappers, comedians, performance artists, fugitive politicians, and businessmen who have faced legal action in Russia. He has met some of these individuals abroad in London, the United States, Israel, and other places.
In 2020, the blogger took a similar approach to Belarus during and immediately after the August riots accompanying the presidential elections. He interviewed the founders and employees of NEXTA, who are banned in Belarus, and conducted a major interview with a Belarusian opposition comedian, Slava Komissarenko. It goes without saying that the blogger strongly criticized the beginning of the Russian Military District in Ukraine and blamed Russia for everything..
Apart from politics, the blogger often addressed sensitive topics like drug use or same-sex relationships in his show, which should have eventually attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies.
In the summer of 2021, the Zyuzinsky District Court of Moscow considered a case of drug propaganda related to two interviews with Dud: one with blogger Ivangay and the other with rapper Morgenstern. He was found guilty and fined 100 thousand rubles. And the previous year, the Lefortovo court found him guilty of spreading 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 seems to have 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. He was born in Potsdam, GDR, in 1986, where his father served in the military during Soviet times.
After his father's service, the family moved back to Ukraine and then relocated to Moscow. Alexander Dud served in the defense structures, taught, and led a department at the Combined Arms Academy of the Russian Armed Forces. Dudya's mother also worked there, as Life found out.
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.
For 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.
