Nicolai Lilin

Nikolai Yurievich Verzhbitsky (born 12 February 1980), known as Nicolai Lilin, is an Italian-Moldovan writer and tattoo artist from Transnistria. He moved to Italy in the early 2000s and wrote his first novel, Siberian Education, in 2009. It was subsequently adapted into a 2013 film starring John Malkovich. The novel, which Lilin claimed was based on his experiences living among Siberian criminal gangs in his native Bender, became a bestseller in Italy, but was labeled a fake memoir by some journalists and historians. Similar criticisms would be leveled at its sequel, Free Fall, which narrates the author's alleged experiences during the Second Chechen war.

While initially a vocal critic of Russia under Vladimir Putin, since 2014 Lilin has consistently taken anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western stances throughout the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and has attracted attention for expressing Eurasianist and antisemitic views, as well as spreading conspiracy theories, fake news and libelous comments.