A Russian influencer has been mocked for getting a new Chanel bag after taking part in a high-profile socialite stunt to scissor her last one in protest at Western sanctions over Vladimir Putin ’s war.
In April, Monaco-based model Victoria Bonya, with 9 million followers, led the anti-Chanel campaign by wealthy women Kremlin backers.
At the time the 42-year-old said in English: “I have to say if Chanel House does not respect its clients, [why] do we have to respect Chanel? Bye-bye.”
The Putin-loving businesswoman who has happily posed in a Putin swimsuit and T-shirts and chooses to live in the West had “never seen any brand acting so disrespectful towards their clients.”
But now she has been accused of “hypocrisy” after posting pictures showing her with a Chanel bag in a car on a holiday in Dubai.
Russian social media is awash with critical comments with one saying of her destroyed: “It was resurrected.”
Another said: "So pathetic. Disgusting."
Most Russians cannot buy Chanel now because the brand has closed across the country and Chanel has been told not to sell anything to Russians abroad too.
Russian socialites said banning them from buying Chanel was "Russophobia."
“Bonya, where are you buying Chanel bags?” She was asked.
Another said: “Is Chanel back?”
In April, Bonya was one of a number of wealthy Russian women who went ballistic over being barred from new purchases by their favourite brand.
They voice no concern for the thousands of dead and wounded people in the war which led to the sanctions, only for their own fashion traumas triggered by Putin’s invasion.
TV presenter and actress Marina Ermoshkina, 28, expressed outrage to her 299,999 followers that in foreign Chanel stores Russian women are asked to sign a pledge they will not wear or display the brand in Russia.
“Not a single item or brand is worth my love for my motherland and my self-respect,” she said, cutting her accessory bag with industrial scissors.
DJ Katya Guseva, 39, with 587,000 followers, said: “I am saying ‘No’ to Chanel. I am against Russophobia and against segregation by nationality. To show you I am serious, I will simply cut up this bag."
Influencer Yana Rudkovskaya and wife of Olympic figure skating champion Alexander Plyushenko was also horrified as she had spent more than one million euros at Chanel over the years so found the ban “somewhat humiliating”.
Moscow foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Chanel of joining “the Russophobic campaign to ‘cancel Russia’.”
She continued: “during the Second World War, Coco Chanel herself was a collaborator and agent of the Third Reich”.
“The latest sanctions restrictions of the European Union and Switzerland prohibit ‘the sale, directly or indirectly, of luxury items to any natural, legal person or entity in the Russian Federation or for use in the Russian Federation”, said a statement.
The company said: “We understand that these measures, aimed at complying with the requirements of the law, may create certain inconveniences for some customers.
“We are currently working to improve the procedure and apologise for any related misunderstandings and inconveniences.”
