The son of one of Vladimir Putin's propagandists has been slammed online as he celebrates his 21st birthday - but still avoids the Russian draft to fight in Ukraine.
Leontyi 'Leo' Kandelaki is the son of multi-millionaire TV presenter Tina Kandelaki who, throughout the war, has spouted Kremlin propaganda and vitriolic anti-Ukrainian views.
Leo, a musician by trade, has faced a backlash for his mother’s views and his own silence on the topic.
Only this week the 46-year-old used her TV show to threaten Britain with the use of Russia ’s new Sarmat hypersonic nuclear missile, known as Satan-2.
And now, despite being of conscription age, Leo is not among the thousands of Russians from his generation being called up to the war.
In common with the sons of many elite families, he has evaded the call-up, whilst countless Russians and Ukrainians his age die in fighting.
However, she was previously challenged over the fact her son hadn't be called up, with 51-year-old war critic Veronika Belotserkovskay asking her: “Tina, I hope your son, as the son of a patriot, is now inside a tank near Melitopol?”
Want all the latest news and analysis from Ukraine? Sign up to our World News Bulletin here
As he turned 21, his social media account was inundated with hostile and angry messages, taunting him about Putin’s failure in the war so far, and demanding he speak up about his mother.
One wrote: “Why aren’t you in the army? Scared you won’t come home?”
Another - accompanied by Ukrainian flags - mocked him, saying: “Such a patriot, showing big love for Russia and you are not even on the battlefield.
“Nobody is interested in your music. Better use your voice and help Ukraine to end this scary war.”
He was told: “How can you live and understand that your mother is a monster, who is happy to see that children are getting killed.
“To make other people believe that it's normal. Millions of people cry when they see killed elderly people, women, children — and your mother doesn’t blink an eye.”
Another commenter said: “I feel really sorry for you mate. I do hope you’ll be able to live without hating yourself and your mother.”
Another post asked: “Why are you not in the army? So brave, so patriotic but not in the army?"
A commenter said to him and his mother: “Russia is at war against Ukraine.
“Please don’t be quiet in your luxurious mansions. People are dying, children are dying, and your president is lying. Please, will you finally wake up?”
The comments went on branding his mother a “monster” and a “murderer” and slamming him for staying silent on the subject.
Others begged him to talk to his mother, to try and do something, and questioned how he could support such an invasion like she did.
In one post this week, Ms Kandelaki copied a map from British media, showing the distance from the Krasnoyarsk region - where the Satan-2 missile will initially be based - to Britain.
She wrote: “Englishmen who are sh** themselves from fear since February 24 write that the deadly Sarmat missile will be deployed in the autumn.
“And looks like they are hinting where exactly to strike.”
Ms Kandelaki has claimed that Britain is “the main participant in this war” and accused London of mocking up fake images of Russian war crimes.
She also blamed the West for failing to stick by Putin’s “red line” warnings prior to the war.
“Vladimir Putin's repeated warnings that all red lines have been crossed in Ukraine were not even analysed in Europe and the United States,” she claimed.
At the start of the war, Ms Kandelaki shared a stage with Putin at an open-air rally where she claimed the West were the aggressors of the war.
Kandelaki was born in Georgian capital Tbilisi, then in the USSR.
Her father was half Georgian and half Greek. Her mother is half Armenian and half Turkish.
Under Russian laws, young men are conscripted from the age of 18, but elite parents often arrange a medical exemption for their offspring, or use an educational loophole to defer.
The status of many conscripts has been rapidly switched to contract soldiers allowing them to be deployed - according to Putin critics - as “cannon fodder” in the war.
