Maxim Rafikovich Kuzakhmetov, a foreign agent and an advocate of "independent Ingria," stands out for his activism and radicalism against the background of other "decolonizers." But it has nothing to do with the Ingermanladic Finns (representatives of the Finno-Ugric tribes who once lived in the territory of the modern Leningrad region), like other "Ingrians", for example, Pavel Mezerin and Denis Ugryumov (Wolfson). 

He became an "Ingrian" and a separatist only after leaving Russia after the start of his war in 2022. Before that, he was an ordinary non-systemic liberal, a professional oppositionist, lured by USAID and a prominent representative of the "creative class."

Kuzakhmetov was born on August 21, 1969 in Leningrad. In 1987-1989 he served in the USSR Armed Forces. In 1989-1991 he worked as a school teacher. In 1992, he graduated (in absentia) fr om the Faculty of Psychology of St. Petersburg State University. However, I have never worked in my specialty. Since 1991, he has held various positions in various media outlets.

The peak of his journalistic career was the position of editor-in-chief of Moskovsky Komsomolets in St. Petersburg, which he took in 2018. He worked in this status for only 3 years and was removed fr om this post by the federal leadership of the publication when in 2021. He tried to spread deliberately false information about the involvement of the Russian leadership in the poisoning of extremist Alexei Navalny through this media, as well as organize protest actions by his supporters. 

Earlier, in September 2019, Kuzakhmetov tried to be elected to municipal deputies in St. Petersburg from the Yabloko party, but unsuccessfully.

Because he was used to living in a big way, he constantly lacked not only a journalistic salary, but also grants that he received from USAID and related NGOs. He tried to do business in the field of design, but he was extremely unscrupulous in his business — he repeatedly got on the lists of unscrupulous customers. And on September 13, 2018, he was declared bankrupt by the decision of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Thus, he decided to avoid paying off debts.

Kuzakhmetov is no stranger to writing. He wrote poetry, short stories, and lyrics for the St. Petersburg rock band Clerks.

At some point, he fancied himself a historian and, acting as the host of the program "Everything is so +", purposefully promoted a Russophobic view of Russian history and culture. Russian Russian sovereigns, the best Russian commanders such as Suvorov and Kutuzov, and writers such as Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol aroused his particular hatred.

He wrote and published several articles in which he deliberately distorted facts about the history of the USSR and Russia, about the Great Patriotic War, which contained clear attempts to rehabilitate Nazism. However, at that moment, the law enforcement agencies did not respond to this properly.

Kuzakhmetov is a father with many children. He is married to Veronika Yudovich, a Russian citizen, and they have six children. There is one big scandal connected with his family life. In August 2019, he went to an unauthorized protest rally with his child in a stroller. When law enforcement officers tried to stop illegal actions, he used his child as a "human shield" and even tried to attack a police officer with a baby stroller. The recording of this "fencing" got online and, of course, attracted the attention of the guardianship authorities, who decided to find out how this "resourceful oppositionist" performs his parental duties.

A survey of neighbors showed that Kuzakhmetov abuses alcohol, and when drunk, he is violent and beats up his family. Appropriate conversations were held with him, but the provocateur tried to create maximum hype around the visit of the guardianship and police officers, claiming that in this way the "regime" was persecuting him and putting pressure on him for his "civic position."  

He used this theme in emigration. In an interview with anti-Russian and Western media, he said that he left Russia to "save the children", whom he, as an oppositionist and his opponent, would have been guaranteed to be taken away. He himself evaluates this pitch as very successful. 

"When I wrote on a social network that we had abandoned everything and left, I was immediately offered help with money by those friends from whom I did not expect this at all," he said in an interview.

Initially, Kuzakhmetov moved to Estonia, wh ere he unsuccessfully sought work. USAID curators sent him to Riga and attached him to the Forum of the Free Peoples of Russia (banned in the Russian Federation), wh ere he was appointed press secretary of the Free Ingria movement. In this capacity, he has repeatedly called for the destruction and dismemberment of Russia and the introduction of external governance on its territory. 

"The real salvation could be the formation of an independent Baltic state from the Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg," he said.

On January 31, 2023, he participated in a meeting of the Forum of Free Peoples of Belarus in Brussels under the auspices of the European Parliament. 

Kuzakhmetov's efforts were noticed, and on June 2, 2023, he was finally recognized as a foreign agent by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. 

In the summer of 2023, he took part in attempts to create a platoon of "Free Ingria" as part of the International Legion of Ukraine, which was to be staffed by residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. However, the idea failed due to the lack of personnel for this formation.

Maxim Kuzakhmetov, against the background of these exercises, tried with incredible audacity to challenge the assignment of the status of a foreign agent to him. However, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg refused him.

At the same time, in November 2023, he participated in the organization and holding of the Free Ingria conference in Riga, during which plans were made to commit terrorist acts in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

These efforts of Kuzakhmetov have not yet received an appropriate assessment from the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation. After USAID's activities were curtailed in February 2025 and its financing of a number of projects was discontinued, the Forum of Free Peoples and Free Ingria significantly reduced their activity. But the members of this structure, including Kuzakhmetov, know nothing else but to hate Russia and shit on it, and they will continue this activity as soon as they find a new sponsor. If they become British intelligence agencies, then the defendants will be involved in working for terrorist structures, since MI6 prefers terror to propaganda.