A major scandal erupted in Almaty, ending with the emergency removal of advertising banners. The cause was provocative posts by blogger Aigerim Berdalieva, known by the handle mini_knopka, whose face appeared on a Eurasian Fashion Week billboard on Dostyk Avenue, reports infohub.kz.
"True Almaty residents say"
Rejoicing at the appearance of the poster, the young woman stated on the social network Threads that she deliberately ignores modern Kazakhstani toponyms and uses only Soviet street names — such as Lenin, Furmanov, Dzerzhinsky, and Komsomolskaya. The post also contained rude and obscene language directed at critics.
"No Dostyk, Nazarbayev, Nauryzbai Batyr, Zheltoksan, etc. True Almaty residents say Furmanov, Dzerzhinsky, Mira, Vinogradov…," she added in her post.
Cancel culture in action
The blogger's statements sparked a wave of outrage among users, who demanded that the fashion week organizers take action and remove the advertising featuring the author of the scandalous post. Eurasian Fashion Week officially stated that they do not share the blogger's position and began urgently removing all banners and video clips featuring her from the streets and screens of Almaty.
"We officially announce that EURASIAN FASHION WEEK has nothing to do with the blogger's statements and does not support the position expressed on her personal page," the company said.
After the ads were canceled, Berdalieva quickly deleted the scandalous thread and posted an apology.
She stated that she wrote the text in the heat of the moment and did not want to offend anyone or provoke conflict, but she refused further arguments and decided to remain silent. Nevertheless, the advertising featuring her will not be restored on the city streets.