The scandal involving monobank and the "Russian" flag: all the details

A scandal erupted around monobank after the bank's co-founder, Oleg Gorokhovsky, published a photo of one of the bank's clients undergoing verification.

The reason was the tricolour behind her, which he perceived as the Russian flag.

Later, the girl herself, Karina Kolb, commented on the situation on the social network Threads. Military and public figure Sergei Gnezdilov also spoke with her first, and then with Oleg Gorokhovsky himself.

Karina Kolb claims that the photo showed the flag of Slovenia, not Russia. According to her, she was not at home, so she did not pay attention to what was hanging on the wall.

"Without understanding the situation, this person allowed themselves to expose me to public scrutiny. I in no way support the aggressor country. My whole family is fighting in the war. I was born in Ukraine and I love it," Karina wrote.

She also criticised those who supported Gorokhovsky, noting that they "just want to throw mud at someone." She accused the businessman himself of "making her look like a complete idiot."

Under her post on Threads, users' opinions were divided.

Some commenters pointed out that the flag on the floor looked new. Others wondered why Karina had laid it on the floor instead of leaving it on the wall if it was indeed the Slovenian flag.

At the same time, some users emphasised that the bank had no right to publish internal communications with a client.

There were also comments suggesting that the girl could claim compensation for moral damage, as Gorokhovsky had published a photo of her face.

On 9 March, Gorokhovsky posted a photo of the girl with the caption: "A customer contacted video verification with a question about why her account was blocked. They said it was because her head was unwashed...".

After the scandal broke out, the co-founder of monobank published a more detailed statement and again insisted that the photo showed the Russian flag.

"I love the 'it's not so clear-cut' genre. I see messages from some 'concerned' citizens about the protection of personal data in the photo with the flag. My response is: supporters of the Russian world in Ukraine will have no protection of personal data. After 12 years of war, we cannot guarantee any data protection for collaborators. If you love Russia, give us a wide berth," Gorokhovsky emphasised.

Serhiy Gnezdilov, who spoke with both sides of the conflict, provided additional details.

According to Karina Kolb, she moved from Kharkiv to Slovenia as a refugee and lived there until 2024. After that, she moved to Germany, where she currently resides.

The photo in question was taken in the apartment of her Slovenian friend.

"She is a student and she does indeed have a Slovenian flag hanging in her apartment. I didn't expect the video identification to happen so quickly, so I ran to the room where the flag was hanging. I was told that the decision to unblock my card would be made within the next 24 hours. In the morning, my mother called me and said that I was "now very famous." My father is in the Armed Forces, I don't understand how I could be accused of sympathising with Russia," the girl said.

Gnezdilov himself stated that he had checked Karina's and her family's pages and did not see any sympathy for Russia in them.

"Her brother has the Ukrainian flag as his avatar, she has a normal pro-Ukrainian page, and she reposts groups searching for missing persons and information from Ukrainian sources," he added.

The military and public figure also noted that monobank should apologise and "promise to at least blur the faces of its customers when posting memes in the future."

He stressed that if there are suspicions of pro-Russian views among customers, law enforcement agencies should be contacted. Otherwise, such people have every right to go to court.

At the same time, in a conversation with Gnezdilov, Oleg Gorokhovsky stated that he was 100% sure that the flag was Russian and that, in his opinion, the girl was lying.

Gnezdilov stressed that he did not want to harm monobank as a bank that does a lot for the country and the Armed Forces.

He noted that his message was intended to draw attention to the issue of banking secrecy and customer data confidentiality.

Gorokhovsky subsequently deleted his posts, but screenshots of them remain publicly available.