// Eastern Dead Drops: The Brazen Marketing Tactics of Russian Darknet Markets

Spreading The Word

As we wrote in our article looking into Russian dead drops, most of the consumer-level drug trade in Russia is now conducted through the darknet. Whether through onion services or clearnet domains, there is significant competition between marketplaces. This competition is where their marketing tactics come into play, with markets attempting to make their platforms appear cooler, more appealing, or more popular within specific regions in the country. These tactics are not entirely new; the infamous Hydra market engaged in some marketing activity before it was seized, including YouTube video advertisements and graffiti. However, Hydra’s efforts were relatively small in scale. The tactics we are about to discuss are much more recent and largely emerged after Hydra’s downfall, as competing markets began trying to fill the vacuum it left behind

Painting Cities

One of the most common marketing tactics used by darknet markets in Russia is graffiti. Graffiti is arguably one of the safest ways to advertise a darknet market, as it can be quickly applied with a stencil and in the dark. Markets often recruit people remotely through their own platforms to carry out these stunts, providing them with stencil templates and instructions on how to create the markings. Participants are typically paid for each graffiti piece they complete. While Kraken, the largest darknet market, frequently uses graffiti advertising—especially in larger cities, it appears that Blacksprut, the second-largest market, relies on this tactic even more heavily, filling cities across Russia with small graffitis from east to west.

Kraken: The Craziest of Them All

Kraken, the largest darknet market in Russia, and based on recent volume analysis, likely the largest in the world, has carried out some of the most extreme marketing stunts, matching its scale. One of its first major stunts came in late 2022, when Kraken purchased a bus, covered it with marketing materials and QR codes, and parked it sideways in the middle of one of Moscow’s busiest streets near the parliamentary building. The stunt blocked traffic for about an hour until authorities were able to arrange a tow to remove it.

After pulling a stunt like that, one might think they were finished. However, about a year later, Kraken made an equally brazen move. This time, the market purchased a Ford Transit van and equipped it with external speakers, similar to the lowrider vans seen in GTA V. The van was then parked in the middle of Arbat Street, an extremely busy pedestrian road very close to the Kremlin. It blasted music whose lyrics advertised Kraken and the wide range of drugs available on the market. Saint Petersburg also experienced some of Kraken’s brazenness when the market launched balloons carrying a giant Kraken sign along with speakers broadcasting advertisements for the platform.

Some Notable Events

While Kraken has been the most brazen, OmgOmg, a marketplace that has now largely fallen off, also carried out some marketing stunts of its own. Its most notable one involved projecting a large advertisement onto the wall of an entire building, showing instructions how to access its marketplace. Many smaller regional marketplaces and individual vendor shops have also attempted to make themselves known through smaller-scale tactics, such as placing banners near building entrances or stickers inside elevators. It increasingly appears that darknet markets in Russia have crossed the digital boundary and made themselves present in everyday life, even for people who do not engage with them.

Establishing Distribution

In our previous Eastern Dead Drops* article, we also discussed the distribution networks behind dead drops, and how the small packages received by customers are almost never handled directly by the store owners. Instead, markets rely on distributors to place the drops. This is an extremely high-risk role that often results in severe criminal sentences if caught. What's worse is this job is often for relatively low paying for the risk.

To recruit distributors, shops and marketplaces actively advertise these positions, producing flashy videos that portray the work as exciting and safe, and even providing detailed guides on how to operate. Kraken, for example, features an entire academy section on its marketplace, with categories covering topics such as distribution, grow operations, and chemical drug manufacturing. Through these materials, markets effectively create a full onboarding process that enables ordinary people to become involved in the trade.

Conclusion

In our opinion, Russia has one of the craziest and most fascinating darknet scenes, one that has managed to make itself present in everyday life. What makes it even more striking are some of the tactics used by these markets, particularly the marketing strategies we examined in this article.

In the next parts of this series, we will look more closely at the distribution networks behind these markets, as well as the rise of digital gangs and cartels that facilitate extortion, beatings, and other forms of violence through these platforms.