Who is the Tallinn resident who marched in Berlin with the Russian flag?

On November 17, an anti-war march organized by prominent leaders of the Russian opposition, Yulia Navalnaya, Ilya Yashin, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, took place in Berlin. Thousands of Russians marched through the German capital, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, condemnation of Putin’s actions, and the release of Russian political prisoners.

According to the TV channel DW, Ukrainian flags and white-blue-white flags, used by Russians protesting against Russia’s aggression, were flown during the march. Only two of the aggressor state Russian Federation’s white-blue-red tricolors were seen at the march, one of which was carried right behind the organizers by Luka Andreyev, who currently resides in Tallinn.

Since April 2023, Luka, who, according to online sources, is 16 years old, has been running a semi-political blog on Telegram. Initially, he had 700 followers, but after the Berlin march, his follower count grew to 1,910.

Already on November 13, Luka announced in his blog that he planned to attend the Berlin march with the official Russian Federation tricolor. He justified his decision as follows:

“I will participate in the anti-war march in Berlin on November 17 with the Russian tricolor. HOWEVER, yesterday I learned that Reforum Space Berlin (a project of the Free Russia Foundation), which is organizing the march, categorically considers the use of the (Russian) tricolor at the event unacceptable.” […]

I am participating in the march because:

I love my country.

I am against Putin.

I am against the war.

I am for unity.

I love my people, even those who are ready to abandon their country’s flag. That’s why I stand alongside them and try to find common ground with them. Yes, it’s probably impossible, but as a citizen of the Russian Federation, it is my duty to at least try. These are Russians, my compatriots, and I must try to find like-minded people. Perhaps my anti-war tricolor will make someone think. Nevertheless, I find it unacceptable to work on foreign funding…

The Free Russia Foundation is full of whores and scoundrels; I oppose their vile methods. […] I cooperate with genuine people, not the riffraff who sell our country to the West for money.”

(Author’s original wording, ed.)

When Andreyev approached members of the youth organization Vesna, banned in Russia, during the protest, it angered demonstrators, according to a report by Meduza. “Get rid of your fascist tricolor!” one man shouted. “The audacity of this person to come here, in the center of Berlin, with that stinking bloody rag! I haven’t seen it (the Russian flag) in Berlin for two and a half years. But now they’re out here, pretending to be the opposition, organizing a little Moscow.”

According to later blog posts, the organizers eventually confiscated the Russian Federation flag from Luka, which drew attention from several outlets, including the opposition media Meduza and Sota. He also gained a thousand new followers.

Although Luka claims to be against Putin’s war, he simultaneously opposes “the cancellation of Russian culture, the transfer of Russia’s frozen assets to Ukraine, attacks on Russia’s civilian infrastructure, etc.”

In live broadcasts where well-known Telegram bloggers invite him after the Berlin march, Luka admits that he spammed communities with different political views and deliberately provoked them to gain attention. For example, in one blog post, he describes how he crashed Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s meeting with anti-war Russian exiles in Warsaw. Reportedly, the very exclusive event was attended by only 30–40 people, including politicians, journalists, and even a Russian volunteer fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to Luka, he attended Khodorkovsky’s event to express his dissatisfaction with the current Russian opposition.

In a podcast, Luka shared that he moved to Tallinn with his parents in 2021. Reportedly, the family took out a loan from a Russian bank to open a handcrafted toy shop here. According to the Estonian business registry, Serafima and Aleksandr Andreyev indeed established a toy store and a nonprofit organization in April 2021, which organized puppet theater performances. According to their website, Luka assists his parents in their endeavors. In March 2022, the family’s nonprofit announced on Facebook that they wanted to organize free recreational activities for children of Ukrainian war refugees.

Luka Andreyev has also expressed his views on ethnic relations in Estonia. In a blog post on November 9, he reflected:
“Russians see their right to study in their native language being taken away, they are regarded as former occupiers, and Soviet monuments erected in honor of soldier-liberators (i.e., their ancestors) are being removed. In such a situation, many of them turn to the Russian government for support.”

Andreyev informed his followers of his intention to make a film on these topics together with Paul Terras-Berg. Paul Terras-Berg appears to be an unknown animator with only 173 subscribers on YouTube.

On November 20, Luka wrote that he began experiencing harassment after participating in the Berlin march:
“My name ended up in the news and debates. Many called me a provocateur. For example, (the former infamous journalist and now popular anti-Putin blogger Aleksandr) Nevzorov referred to me as ‘pro-Putin’ in front of his million-strong audience.”

First, someone began spreading my personal information on Twitter, including my home address. Then, all the Estonian political participants who had worked with me on an amateur documentary demanded that I delete the recorded material. My friend was expelled from a local political party due to their “suspicious association with me.”

Luka emphasized that he is not an enemy of the Estonian state and does not pose a threat. He concluded his statement with the words:
“I have done nothing wrong. I simply carried my country’s flag to protest against Putin’s policies and expressed my opinion in a democratic country. Please stop damaging my reputation.”

Propastop sent Luka Andreyev written questions about his activities but had not received a response by the time the article was published.