‘She was 15, he was 23’ Russian rapper Oxxxymiron accused of ‘grooming’ minors and sexually assaulting teenagers
The studio Libo/Libo has released a new season of the podcast “Doch’ Razboinika” (Daughter of a Bandit) by journalist and feminist activist Nastya Krasilnikova. In four episodes, she tells the stories of three women who accuse rapper Miron Fedorov (better known by his stage name, “Oxxxymiron”) of “grooming” minors and committing sexual assault. The misconduct described in Krasilnikova’s podcast occurred in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when the women allegedly targeted by Oxxxymiron were still teenagers. Krasilnikova says she omitted several other accusations from the podcast because they could not be independently verified. Meduza reviews the key details of the investigation.
Warning: This text contains explicit language.
Miron Fedorov is one of the most popular and influential Russian rappers today. His 2015 album “Gorgorod” was a milestone in Russian rap history. He’s also a skilled battle rapper: in 2017, he became the first Russian artist to participate in the international tournament World Domination, where he faced off against American rapper Dizaster.
As the Russian government has grown more repressive, Fedorov’s work has gotten increasingly political. In 2019, he voiced support for defendants in a criminal case over unrest following a protest rally in Moscow calling for fair elections. In 2022, he condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and organized a series of “Russians Against War” concerts, raising $195,000 for Ukrainian refugees. That same year, the Russian authorities declared him a “foreign agent,” and in 2024, it put out an arrest warrant for him.
Vera Markovich’s Story
Vera Markovich, Oxxxymiron’s former girlfriend and manager, said she met him in 2008 while studying in England. She was 15 years old, and he was 23. Fedorov was Markovich’s legal guardian during her time in England. In other words, he acted as her parents’ official representative abroad, serving as the person responsible for Markovich’s wellbeing and best interest. Krasilnikova notes that guardianship work was how Fedorov made a living between 2008 and 2009.
Vera says Fedorov was “grooming” her throughout the first year they knew each other. She claims that Fedorov tried to coerce her into sex at a hotel (on the podcast, it’s unclear exactly when this incident occurred). She also accuses Fedorov of raping her after she turned 16. On the podcast, Markovich says he forced himself on her after a party:
There was a mattress tucked away under the roof. I lay down there. And at some point, he [Fedorov] came in and laid down next to me. I was completely paralyzed. I remember it felt very strange that I wasn’t moving. But somehow, this person still wanted to have sex with someone lying motionless.
According to Markovich, Fedorov was married during their time together in London, though he later divorced. Oxxxymiron has never publicly spoken about this marriage.
In 2009, Markovich returned to Russia but stayed in contact with Fedorov. Two years later, he joined her in Moscow, created the label Vagabund, and released the album The Wandering Jew. Soon after, he and Markovich began dating, and she later took on the role of his manager (she was 19, he was 26). Markovich claims that Oxxxymiron dedicated the first version of the song Fucked Up Girl, written during that period, to her.
While they dated, Oxxxymiron gave Markovich access to his VKontakte account, through which she discovered his messages with other underage girls. She did not confront him about it. “Right now, what matters is that he breaks out big, and we’ll deal with the rest later. Whatever hurt feelings I’ve got are secondary — we’re saving a genius,” Markovich recalls thinking at the time, telling Krasilnikova that Fedorov was battling “procrastination, depression, and existential crisis”:
Basically, I opened those chats and was shocked. And once, just when I was picking him up together with [fellow rapper and Vagabund label co-founder] Shokk, to help them find an apartment, a girl walked out of his place — someone he had spent the night with — who was still in school at the time, because she left to go to class.
In 2013, Markovich and Fedorov split up. She says he frequently cheated on her, threw jealous fits, and broke business commitments. Fedorov later referenced her in another song, Pesenka Gremlina (“The Gremlin’s Little Song”), rapping that “his love” was off “fucking someone in Montenegro” while he “sifted through allegories in vain.” (Markovich told Krasilnikova that she vacationed in Montenegro with several friends after the breakup.)
In November 2021, after the release of the song Kto Ubil Marka? (“Who Killed Mark?”), Markovich wrote an Instagram post about her relationship with Fedorov, detailing how they got to know each other. On his own Instagram page, Oxxxymiron responded: “I regret that I caused her so much pain, and I take responsibility for my actions.”
Meanwhile, another woman named Vika Kuchak reached out to Markovich to say that Fedorov had abused her, too, when she was a teenager.
Vika Kuchak’s Story
Vika Kuchak started talking to Miron Fedorov on VKontakte in 2008. She was 13 years old at the time and living in Kazakhstan. She recalls that the young rapper felt “special” to her. Their interactions began when she asked him to leave an “autograph” on her VKontakte wall. Kuchak says Fedorov’s contact with her became a kind of grooming. Oxxxymiron seemed to her like “someone from another planet,” she told Krasilnikova, remembering how flattering it was to gain the attention of a 23-year-old musician:
He’s a rapper from London, an Oxford graduate. And he’s writing to me, saying I’m beautiful. And I’m just sitting at home in an apartment with peeling wallpaper. I’d never even gone beyond the city limits.
Kuchak is now certain that Fedorov must have known he was messaging a 13-year-old child. She says he repeatedly invited her to his concerts. In 2011 (when Kuchak was 16 and Fedorov was 26), she managed to attend his performance in Ufa. After the show, she says, Fedorov raped her in the apartment organizers rented for the event’s musicians:
And then, when he started undressing me, he even double-checked: ‘Wait, you did turn 16, right?’ He made sure he wasn’t breaking the law. But now I say openly: This was rape, because grooming a child for three years and then having sex with her is rape.
After this incident, Kuchak tried to maintain a relationship with Oxxxymiron, but she says he began ignoring her, and in 2012, he formally and “irrevocably” declared their communications ended, saying he clung to the “optimism” that she would “have the good sense to leave it at that.”
After Krasilnikova’s podcast aired, Kuchak published a tweet thread, again describing her interactions with Fedorov. She said that “what happened at the concert” and Fedorov’s subsequent decision to cut off all communications caused her “severe PTSD symptoms.” Kuchak also called on other women with similar experiences with Oxxxymiron to come forward and share their stories.
Journalist Nastya Krasilnikova released an investigation in which other victims and I talk about how Miron Fedorov (Oxxxymiron) groomed minors. In this photo, I’m 13, and that’s when he began a grooming process that would go on for three years.
Preface: I am publishing this text because violence against teenagers goes unnoticed, is justified, or is completely ignored by society. This is my attempt to explain how trauma experienced during adolescence leaves a deep mark and lingers for years. It’s important for me to support those who are afraid to speak out because society has imposed shame and guilt on them. Knowledge and education on this issue have been a source of liberation for me, and now I want to share this with others to help them find the strength for recovery and change.
Vika Mikhailova’s Story
A third woman who spoke to Krasilnikova was Vika Mikhailova, who also began messaging Oxxxymiron on VKontakte in 2008. She was 15 then and lived in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (renamed Dnipro in 2016). Mikhailova says her VKontakte profile featured a “pretty revealing photo.” In their correspondence, Fedorov started asking for more intimate pictures, sending messages like “baby, you’ve got me fired up, I’ve got a strong and real urge to be inside you” and so on.
Mikhailova says Oxxxymiron invited her to his concerts in Ukraine in 2009 and suggested a threesome, but she never met him in person. Still, she says their messaging “lasted for years”:
I thought we were alike. He came off as so intelligent. I clearly remember sitting there in school, where I couldn’t stand it. But I was messaging with Oxxxymiron, and it helped take my mind off things.
Oxxxymiron’s Response
Krasilnikova tried to contact Oxxxymiron and his manager in December 2024. She reported that Oxxxymiron viewed her message in the messenger, but he didn’t reply. Last November, citing “health reasons,” Oxxxymiron announced a one-year delay of his planned 2025 tour. Neither the musician nor his representatives have responded to the allegations raised in Krasilnikova’s podcast.
Fedorov’s manager did not respond to a message from a Meduza correspondent at the time of publication.