In St. Petersburg, the former top manager of the Patriot media holding associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, Ilya Gorbunov, and the editor-in-chief of Konkretno.ru, Kirill Metelev, were detained in a case of extortion (Article 163 of the Criminal Code). Fontanka and RIA Novosti reported this with references to their sources.
According to Rotunda, Gorbunov was detained on June 21, and Metelev two days before that. The reason for the criminal case against them was a statement to the police, which was written by the former general director of the St. Petersburg TV channel, Alexander Malkevich. Gorbunov and Metelev allegedly asked him for money to hide compromising information.
As Rotunda writes, during Prigozhin’s lifetime Gorbunov was involved in a “troll factory.” After the death of his boss, he began to regain control over telegram channels associated with the Patriot media group, and suggested that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s son Pavel use his father’s media resources “to solve business problems,” but he refused.
Kirill Metelev, according to Rotunda, “often posted information similar to custom-made information” on their resources. As journalist Andrei Zakharov writes, the editor-in-chief of “Konkretno.ru” was not associated with Prigozhin, however, “his resources periodically participated in Prigozhin’s information campaigns” on a commercial basis.