A single appearance at a relatively minor event turned Igor Chaika, 37, head of Russia's agency for relations with compatriots living abroad, into a social media star this week. A video in which he discussed strained relations between Russia and Armenia drew about 5 million views on X alone, as jokes about the Russian official's weight spread widely online.
Users showed little mercy, comparing Chaika's appearance to the comic book character Kingpin and Peter Griffin from the animated comedy "Family Guy." The online ridicule became so intense that, according to reports on social media, the Russian agency's official Instagram account was closed to comments entirely.
In the West, Chaika may have become an internet joke, but for many people in the Russian Federation, his continued presence in positions of power is no laughing matter. He has long been seen as a symbol of government corruption and the disconnect between senior officials and ordinary citizens.
Chaika is the son of Yuri Chaika, Russia's former prosecutor general, who left office in 2020. In 2015, the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny published an investigation into the Chaika family alleging that the former prosecutor general and his two sons, Artyom and Igor, had amassed extensive property holdings in several countries and taken control of a series of businesses generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual profits for the family.
Navalny's investigation, along with other journalistic probes, alleged that Igor Chaika in particular unlawfully won government and regional tenders for garbage collection, road repairs and food transportation across Russia worth tens of millions of dollars a year. According to those investigations, the contracts were secured in part through intervention by law enforcement officials who were directly subordinate to his father.
After Navalny's investigation was published, Russian law enforcement authorities moved to conceal the extensive property accumulated by members of the Chaika family. In the summer of 2016, it emerged that the Federal Service for State Registration, known as Rosreestr, had replaced the names of Igor Chaika and his brother in real estate records with special codes.
As a result, all property registered in Igor Chaika's name was hidden in the government registry under the alias YFYAU9. Assets registered to his brother Artyom were concealed under the name LSDU3.
In 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on Igor Chaika over what it described as "interference in Moldova's internal affairs," and official U.S. documents list YFYAU9 as an "alternate name."
Navalny did not give up and petitioned Russia's Supreme Court to overturn the concealment of the Chaika family's property. The judiciary, however, sided with the prosecutor general and his sons, ruling that the authorities' actions were legal and citing the family's right to privacy.
His investigation turned the Chaika family into a symbol of corruption; Alexei Navalny
(Photo: AP)
After the scandals surrounding the family and the elder Chaika's departure as prosecutor general, some expected his sons to disappear from Russian public life. Instead, the opposite happened.
In April this year, President Vladimir Putin appointed Igor Chaika to head the Russian agency for relations with compatriots living abroad.
The government agency, established in 2008, has an annual budget estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. It operates about 90 branches in roughly 70 countries, unofficially known as "Russian Houses." Its branch in Israel is located at the Sergei Courtyard, which was transferred to Russian government ownership in 2009.
This week, Chaika announced plans to open 11 additional "Russian Houses" in 11 countries, most of them in Africa.
A source who spoke with the opposition website The Insider suggested that the position was intended to help Chaika circumvent the personal sanctions imposed on him and advance his business interests outside Russia.
"Mr. Chaika had been counting on a position within the presidential administration, but it appears those at the top decided he was more of a businessman and wanted to focus on business abroad," the source said.
Chaika rarely discusses his personal life and has never publicly addressed his weight.