The popular flirting app Tinder is no longer available in Russia. Kremlin friends have developed alternatives – but the largest target group has different preferences.
November 16, 2025, 06:48November 16, 2025, 06:48
Ivan Ruslyannikov / ch media
When the world’s leading dating app provider Tinder left Russia, there was a huge outcry among young people. That was in June 2023. As a result, the Kremlin and other supporters of “traditional Orthodox values” decided to take the vacant niche of online dating into their own hands.
In Russia, Ukraine veterans are glorified as heroes – now the Kremlin also wants to help them find a partner.Image: keystone
Putin’s representative in the Urals, Artem Zhoga, proposed creating a marriage agency to provide a partner to single Russian soldiers taking part in the war in Ukraine. “With a good woman, everything always works out for a man: both socialization and finding a job,” explained Zhoga. Family relationships are complex matters and an approach has to be found here.
A unified marriage agency for soldiers is currently being set up by the Ministry of Digital Development. However, the project is met with resistance – the Ministry of Defense fears possible hacker attacks on the database.
In Russia, dating apps still play an important role in finding a partner. Before leaving Russia in 2023, Tinder had more than one million monthly users. The domestic services “Mamba” (1.7 million users per month) and “Drug Wokrug” (about 2 million) are also popular in Russia.
Dating apps for LGBT people have been blocked by Russian censorship agency Roskomnadzor. Against this background, several dating apps have recently appeared in Russia aimed at an Orthodox and conservative audience.
The daughter of a Putin confidant is behind the app
One of these new online dating services is called plbvi.ru (“For Love”) and was founded by Alexandra, the daughter of the Russian children’s commissioner Maria Lwowa-Belowa. The Putin confidant is responsible for the kidnappings of Ukrainian children and is therefore wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague with an arrest warrant.
The dating app was launched in July 2025 and promises “serious relationships and real love.” Lvowa-Belova’s app received state support and was included in the list of Russian national projects. If someone posts revealing photos, the account will be blocked.
Although the app has already been published more than ten thousand times on Google Play was downloaded, the reviews according to the comments are anything but enthusiastic. Users complain about the small number of profiles in Moscow, while in the interior of Russia there are no profiles at all within a radius of 100 kilometers.
They have already found each other – even without help from the Kremlin: a Russian couple is getting married in Moscow.Image: keystone
The admin replies that the app has just launched and promises to offer a variety of relationship building options in the future.
Around the same time, in July of this year, right-wing extremist blogger Vladislav Pozdnyakov created his own bot for online dating on Telegram with the illustrious name “Nataschki and Stepashki”. Men have to pay around 10 francs for a monthly subscription, while women get free access “after careful moderation”.
One night for 10,000 francs
Pozdnyakov promises women “state benefits, a strong male shoulder and care” from “young and hot soldiers.” In his Telegram channel (over 700,000 subscribers), Pozdnyakov asked soldiers not to tell their friends about what was happening at the front and “not to send dick pics.” It is difficult to judge how large the selection of dating offers this bot has.
Despite the efforts of the Kremlin-affiliated structures to instill traditional family values in the war participants, an increase in prostitution can be observed in the territories occupied by Russia. As regional media reported, “a lot of single men with very high incomes by local standards have appeared” in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The independent Russian online magazine “Verstka” conducted research on the subject of prostitution in the occupied territories. Women come to these regions from the depths of Russia to earn money. You can find your customers in Telegram chats. According to their information, 99 percent of customers in the occupied territories are Russian soldiers. (aargauerzeitung.ch)
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