Last week, recordings of 18 telephone conversations were published on the network, which allegedly were conducted between the vice-rector of the Higher School of Economics Valeria Kasamara and the Saratov fortune teller Irma (Ema Kalmetova).

If you believe the records and proceed from their authenticity, then the fortune teller gave advice to the woman, including on the management of the university.

Kasamara herself called all these recordings a fake, which was made possible thanks to modern technology. 

However, Ema Kalmetova insists that she regularly communicated with Kasamara.

Internet users appreciated the leak.

Social networks are full of memes and messages that the "tower" is controlled by a "fortune teller from Dubki".

16 million to remove damage

According to experts, such consultations could be very expensive.

So, in May, the media reported that the daughter of the former governor of the Penza region, Natalya Bochkareva, donated 16 million rubles to the fortuneteller "to resolve issues of life and health."

The materials said that Bochkarev was introduced to the fortuneteller by an ex-boyfriend who "felt that someone had cast a spell on her and she had a leaky aura."

It was planned to solve the problems with the help of "removing damage".

However, after several sessions, having received the money, the fortune-teller stopped communicating.

Natalya, in turn, decided that the fortuneteller did not provide any services, and turned to law enforcement agencies.

The police are now conducting a pre-investigation check.

State Duma Deputy Sergei Vostretsov, who proposed to introduce criminal liability for fraudulent actions for psychics, magicians and fortune-tellers - up to imprisonment for up to 10 years, at the end of 2017 estimated the market for "magic services" in Russia at $ 2 billion.

“At present, the market for“ psychic services ”in Russia, according to experts, is more than $ 2 billion and is constantly growing due to the positive information background created by the mass media.

In this regard, well-grounded initiatives arise to limit and suppress this activity, ”- said in an explanatory note to the bill submitted to the Duma. 

Fashion returns

The illusionist Nikolai Fomushin, who regularly exposes all kinds of "psychics", believes that even scientists can fall for the bait of a charlatan.

“There is no direct correlation between educational attainment and critical thinking.

A person can be an expert in one area, but at the same time retain everyday naivety.

Therefore, in the committees that check various kinds of "miracles", along with scientists, there are also illusionists who understand the mechanics of the process, "he explains to RT.

Fomushin notes that the world of the supernatural has always attracted people.

Even in the USSR in the sixties, when scientific materialism officially dominated, Ninel Kulagina gained world fame, who supposedly possessed telekinesis - she moved objects and could change the direction of the compass needle.

As the expert adds, it later turned out that Kulagina was an ordinary swindler, including convicted of fraud, and the miracles demonstrated can easily be repeated by middle-class illusionists.

In the eighties, the "healer" Juna loudly declared herself, whose "effect" was studied by the laboratory "Physical fields of biological objects" specially created at the Kotelnikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IRE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (however, without any intelligible scientific results).

And then a stream of psychics, astrologers and magicians, including the elite level, poured into the domestic market.

Major bankers and politicians did not hesitate to contact fortune-tellers and healers.

“It was fashionable in the 1990s, and now fashion is returning,” says Fomushin.

He noted that, on the one hand, people in a difficult situation are being led to the proposals of charlatans, for example, those who are faced with a serious illness or the loss of children and are ready to try any methods, and on the other hand, wealthy people who first look at it rather as entertainment and it is easy to part even with large sums.

Kolya the shaman and Misha the magnet

In 2016-2017, the media actively wrote about the Ural sorcerer - shaman Nikolai Kachurov and the psychic for the elite Misha Magnet.

According to journalists, high-ranking officials and large businessmen resorted to the services of these healers.

So, one of the oligarchs allegedly even tried with their help to remove the damage that his wife allegedly brought on him, and at the same time to put a "love spell" on the prince of Monaco, in order to thus enlist his support and favor. 

Another colleague of the Ural sorcerers, the Nenets shaman Kolya - Nikolai Taleev - visited the legislative assembly of St. Petersburg and "cleared him of evil energy."

Deputy Vitaly Milonov even turned to the prosecutor's office with a request to check whether the sorcerer's visit could damage the authority of the parliamentarians.

According to media reports, the shaman Kolya was patronized by the senator from the Nenets District Vadim Tyulpanov, the former speaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly.

Allegedly, Kolya predicted the future for the senator.

  • vk.com

  • © Nikolay Kachurov

Fortune-teller's trial

However, the help of fortune-tellers in business can turn into big troubles.

For example, in 2018, for involvement in the theft of 2.2 billion rubles from NOTA-Bank, together with the heads of a financial institution, brothers Dmitry and Vadim Erokhin, as well as financial director Galina Marchukova, a hereditary fortune teller was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Nonna Mihai. 

A woman with four grades of education, according to the investigation, first helped the management of NOTA-Bank with everyday advice, and then became the actual initiator of the assignment of a deliberately non-repayable loan in the amount of 350 million rubles.

Also, the media reported that Mikhail also bewitched the ex-colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenko, who received 13 years in a strict regime colony for accepting a bribe on an especially large scale.

For the billionaire from the Moscow region, Valery Zyukov, communication with fortune-tellers and shamans ended in death.

In December 2019, he was found shot to death in his own car in a forest belt near Domodedovo. 

During the investigation, it turned out that the entrepreneur had relationships with several women, but did not marry anyone.

One of the mistresses Venus Aiginina decided to push the businessman to marry.

She persuaded a familiar fortune-teller to convince Zyukov that he was damaged, which can only be removed by marriage to Aiginina.

According to media reports, the entrepreneur married a girl.

But it seemed to her that this was not enough, and she, deciding to take possession of his money, hired a killer.

As a result, the businessman was killed in his car during a trip to the fictional shaman in Domodedovo, who was supposed to finally remove the damage.

Work remotely

According to lawyers, it is not easy to bring magicians and sorcerers to justice for poorly rendered services.

“With the exception of an extremely unrealistic situation, when a service contract with a guarantee of the result was concluded between the fortuneteller and the client, it is impossible to be held liable for poor-quality services, even if the advice would lead to serious losses.

This is not a protected civil law relationship.

Like betting or gambling.

Paying the card debt is a matter of honor, but the court will not influence this in any way, ”lawyer Stanislav Danilov explains to RT.

Nikolai Fomushin notes that soothsayers and "adepts of ancient knowledge" keep pace with the times, during the pandemic they also switched to remote work and are now actively guessing via Skype.

According to him, the miracles they demonstrate are easily explainable, but the schemes work thanks to personal charm.

“These psychics are just charismatic and attractive people, like all scammers.

They could also lure people into a pyramid scheme.

The main thing is charisma and the ability to gain trust.

Everyone knows what a financial pyramid is, but they are still in progress.

It's the same here, ”he notes.

“For example, there is a 'cold reading' technique where you start with guesses that have a high probability. In the course of the conversation, we receive new information from the person himself, analyzing age, clothes, body language. Thus, it is easy to convince a person that his past and future can be read. And with the development of modern technologies, they often use the "hot reading" technique, when information can be collected in advance, for example, by tracking a client on social networks. Then this information is spread to him under the guise of supernatural insight, ”continues Fomushin, who is a member of the Houdini Prize Commission.

According to its terms, one million rubles are paid for the demonstration of paranormal abilities under the conditions of a correctly designed experiment.

The award has existed since 2015, but during all this time, none of the applicants managed to collect the money.

There are analogs in other countries as well.

For example, the American James Randi Foundation Award, which has existed for over fifty years.

“I really want to believe in miracles, but I do not find them, unfortunately,” says Fomushin.

"At the same time, the services of fortune-tellers and psychics are offered at every step, and they are extremely expensive."