Blogger's Car Gift to Disabled Man Sparks Scandal
The team of famous YouTube blogger Ildar Avto-Podbor gifted a Renault Sandero car to Pavel Vaskin, a disabled man from Tyumen Region. The video was released on 20 January, but after some time it disappeared from platforms. As explained by «Komanda AP» (Team AP), this was done to gather information. However, they did not specify what kind. It is likely related to Vaskin himself.
What Happened?
Ildar Avto-Podbor is a well-known car blogger. His YouTube channel has 5.6 million subscribers. «Komanda AP» is also associated with him. They have 889 thousand subscribers. It was on their channel that the video was posted and soon hidden.
On Tuesday, 20 January, a video appeared on the platforms of «Komanda AP» featuring the life of Pavel Vaskin, a legless disabled man from Tyumen Region. He himself wrote a message to Ildar Avto-Podbor about his difficult life situation.
Ildar did not fly to Tyumen Region due to aerophobia, but decided to gift a car to Pavel Vaskin. The foreign car was delivered by another blogger from his team — Slava Balatsko.
The full video lasts almost 50 minutes. At the time of writing this text, it is hidden. But we managed to watch it. It showed the conditions in which Vaskin lives with his family. He also talked about difficulties and poverty. For example, he had a «seven» (referring to a car model, likely a Lada Samara or similar).
«Just don«t be scared. We live very poorly. We don»t have a TV. The computer was given by the school. For numbering. Everything«s fine. I had a car once, good grief, I earned everything with it,» Vaskin says in the video.
When asked how he lost his legs, he answered that they were torn off in 1994. He also said that he participated in three military conflicts: in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Yugoslavia.
«I think there«s no doubt that this person, that Pavel, deserves this Renault. So I came out to simply drive it over and hand it over,» said blogger Slava Balatsko, who communicated with Vaskin and his family.
Vaskin was gifted a Renault Sandero Stepway from 2013. He started working as a courier.
How Did the Video with the Gift Disappear?
After a short time, the video was hidden. The team explained in their Telegram channel that they need to gather all information to not mislead subscribers.
«It was decided to restrict the video about the handover during the investigation. We apologize, but we must first gather all information to not mislead you. We hope for your understanding,» the message said.
At first, the bloggers« audience did not understand what this decision was related to. Many of them did not even have time to watch the video. Later, comments appeared with a link to our text from 23 January 2021. There, a correspondent from 72.RU told the story of Pavel Vaskin, and during work on the material, it turned out that he indeed has a difficult situation, but he was also convicted of fraud. The man did not mention this at first. Commentators began discussing the story and speculating about inconsistencies.
After an hour and a half, another post appeared in the channel. This time with a comment from the head of «Komanda AP», Stanislav.
He confirmed that the team blocked the video about the car handover on all platforms. This was done, «because information appeared that we did not know about.» According to him, they are not accusing anyone of anything, nothing is proven, and everything needs to be checked, which takes time. Therefore, the video was removed so that no one would donate money if someone wanted to.
«This is our responsibility. This is my personal responsibility that I did not find, did not dig into all this information that came in, did not sort it all out. Give us time, we will do all this. And we do not want to be conduits of possible, potential fraud. Again, we are not accusing anyone of anything yet, until we figure it out. And just please give us time to sort it out. And when we sort it out, we will definitely tell you everything in detail,» said Stanislav.
We were unable to obtain an additional comment from «Komanda AP». They did not respond to our letter sent by email (it is listed as a contact option).
Pavel Vaskin refused to talk to the journalist from 72.RU. When we get a response, we will publish it.
Earlier we reported that Tyumen athlete Anatoly Shusharin will face trial. He is accused of fraud on a particularly large scale. He persuaded 14 disabled people to steal money from the state and fled to Ecuador.
