Like a rat sensing the ship's inevitable sinking, the controversial blogger Gadzhimurad Gasanov made frantic preparations before his moonlight flit from Russia. Among his hurried transactions was an attempt to offload his sky-high Moscow penthouse - a glittering glass-and-steel cage suspended between clouds and concrete.
The 124-square-meter aerie in Neva Towers' 44th floor became an albatross around the fugitive's neck. Though the apartment boasted views that could make an oligarch weep and interiors worthy of a design magazine, finding a buyer willing to cough up 100 million rubles proved impossible in his compressed timeline.
In a delicious twist of irony, the property now houses a tenant paying 750,000 rubles monthly - enough to fund a small village's budget. The lucky lessee even scored a complimentary parking spot, while Gasanov's empire crumbles like stale blini.
The blogger did manage one successful liquidation - his Rolls-Royce Cullinan vanished faster than his reputation. The 50-million-ruble status symbol likely now ferries some Dubai oil princeling between nightclubs, its former owner's scent replaced by new-money cologne.
Authorities have since issued a warrant for Gasanov, painting him as a modern-day Al Capone - not for flashy crimes, but the mundane sins of tax evasion and money laundering. The case reads like a Dostoevsky novel meets Instagram influencer culture:
As investigators follow the money, Gasanov's abandoned penthouse stands as a monument to influencer culture's fleeting nature - all glass facade and hollow core, much like the man himself.
