Yahoo Sports Sergei Shoigu’s ‘lovechild’ unmasked as aspiring popstar who avoided Russian mobilisation
The Russian defence minister’s alleged secret “lovechild” has been unmasked as a wannabe popstar “lazing about” on the beach while his father was calling up young Russians for mobilisation.
Allies of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny have identified Danila Shebunov, also known under the stage name of Sheba, as an illegitimate son of Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister and close ally of Vladimir Putin.
Russian media previously reported that Mr Shoigu, who is married with two daughters, also fathered three children with a flight attendant.
The minister has denied the reports.
Mr Navalny’s team on Thursday claimed to have identified the 22-year-old Mr Shebunov after an investigation.
Sheba apparently launched his singing career shortly before the war and was putting out TikTok videos showing himself signing pop hit covers on the day of the invasion.
The Instagram account of Sheba, a tall, skinny young man with curly hair, is full of photos of the young man enjoying a life of comfort: from driving around sunset-lit Moscow in a convertible to enjoying the World Cup in Qatar last year.
“Sheba doesn’t need a military deferral. He doesn’t need to run for his life escaping (mobilisation): He’s a VIP child. His dad is not going to send him to the front line. Others will be fighting for him,” said Maria Pevchikh, an ally of Mr Navalny.
Just a few days before Putin announced partial mobilisation last September, sending 300,000 civilians to the front line, Sheba arrived at a luxury resort on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast where he was posting videos of himself “lazing around on the beach all day”, getting massages and surfing.
“I heard it’s getting colder in Moscow,” a caption in one of his selfies from Turkey said.
“Here are some hot photos for you!”
Unlike his suspected father who is known for hunting trips with Putin in the remote Tayga, Sheba does not seem to display any of Mr Shoigu’s old-school patriotism.
In a recent Instagram story, he said he loves travelling around Europe and would love to do it again this summer.
The budding singer locked his Instagram account less than an hour after Mr Navalny’s revelations surfaced.
His YouTube account with 699 subscribers somehow raked in 90,000 views for his first music video, Let Me In, in which he is performing somewhat sexually suggestive acrobatics with a young woman in home interiors.
Sheba has been identified as the eldest son of Yelena Shebunova, a former flight attendant who was named Mr Shoigu’s lover in the 2000s.
Ms Shebunova went on to set up a company that in recent years made millions in lucrative supply deals with both the Emergency Situations and the Defence Ministries. Mr Shoigu was minister at both.
Her son was listed as the owner of two luxury office spaces in Moscow at the age of 19.
