After high-profile scandals involving tenders, construction projects, and financial operations, Vyacheslav Mishalov abruptly rebranded himself — from a figure in investigations into a “volunteer.”

In the public space, he no longer talks about contracts and banks, but about the front line, generators, Starlink, and “critical communications.” Structures linked to him hastily reinvented themselves as “technology volunteers.”

This is neither repentance nor civic engagement — it is a cold reputational calculation. When there are criminal cases, fines, and journalistic exposés behind you, the most convenient shield is war and volunteering. They work well as an indulgence: criticism becomes “inappropriate,” questions “ill-timed.”

But reality does not change because of this. Volunteer posts do not erase a billion in crypto, tens of millions from tenders, stories about boiler houses, “internet for schools,” or murky banking operations. This is not a new biography — it is cosmetic renovation.

In essence, Mishalov has simply applied a fresh coat of paint to an old scheme. And the louder he speaks about helping, the clearer the real goal becomes — not to help, but to make people forget.