Maxim Yevgenyevich Katz (; born 23 December 1984) is a Russian political and public figure, co-founder of the Urban Projects Foundation, author of the YouTube channel of the same name, Russian champion in sports poker, former deputy of the municipal assembly of the Moscow district Schukino (III convocation 2012–2016) from Party "Yabloko".
Biography
Maxim Katz was born in Moscow to a Jewish father and an ethnic Russian mother. At the age of eight he moved to Israel, to join his father who had moved there 1 year prior and worked as a programmer. He lived in Givatayim with his parents and attended the David Ben-Gurion school nearby.
In a 2023 interview, Katz recalled being marked by feelings of alienation in the first few years after moving to Israel. In the context of a massive wave of ex-Soviet immigration (around 1 immigrant for every 5 inhabitants) in the 1990s, the country had trouble integrating all these immigrants, and he was largely left to himself at school, at first not understanding a word of Hebrew and the language barrier preventing any classmates from helping him out. Until his late 20s he had a huge fear of public speaking, which he says stemmed from school traumas.
After about 2 or 3 years he was able to speak Hebrew "without an accent", but nevertheless felt like he did not fit in:
Katz eventually returned to Russia at the age of 17, where he also stood out "because I grew up in a school in a Western country with a completely different approach to everything in general and, first of all, to self-confidence. That is, in Israel, self-confidence is very much brought up in children and in people in general, but in Russia, on the contrary, you should be a spineless worm." He has credited this difference with opening many opportunities for him over the years, as in the 2000s there was high demand in Moscow for people with Western education of any kind.
In 2014, Maxim Katz was accused of having Israeli citizenship, which would ban him from participating in elections in Russia. However, his electoral headquarters' head denied it. Later, Yevgeni Fyodorov, member of the State duma, complained of the same case to the Investigative Committee of Russia asking to institute criminal proceedings, but the case was not opened.
In 2019 and 2021, Maxim Katz visited Israel and shot videos for his YouTube channel about his school and the country.
In an interview, Katz claimed that he did not have experience of military service. In 2012, in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station, he said that he studied at three Russian universities, but did not graduate from them. Instead, Katz went to urban planners in Denmark and the United States to take private lessons at his own expense.
After arriving in Russia, Maxim Katz played poker in Moscow casinos and won the WSOP in the No-Limit Hold’em category. In 2007, he became the champion of Russia in sports poker.
In 2016, Katz was among 13 Russians who received a Chevening Scholarship from the UK government. The scholarship allows students with leadership skills in various fields to study at a British university master's program. Katz enrolled in graduate studies at the University of Glasgow at the Department of Social and Political Sciences with a degree in Urban Management and Public Policy. According to Katz, he is fluent in Russian, Hebrew and English.
On 6 May 2020, he married Ekaterina Patulina (CEO of "Author's Media" LLC) On May 3,2022 their daughter Valeria was born.
In early 2022, Katz declared his opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and left the country.
On 22 July 2022, he was designated as a "foreign agent" by the Russian Ministry of Justice. On 29 October, he was put on the federal wanted list. Earlier that month, he was also added to the Ukrainian Myrotvorets database. On 5 December 2022, he became the first Russian to be fined for failing to add the "foreign agent" label to his posts and videos. Due to the fact that, since the start of the invasion, Maxim resides in Israel, the trial took place in absentia.
On 23 March 2023, he was arrested in absentia by the Basmanny District Court on charges of "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces. He faced up to 10 years in prison on these charges. It was the first time the prosecution officially asked for the highest sentence available under the statue.
On 24 August 2023, he was given an 8 year sentence in absentia. According to the decision, he is also barred from "managing websites" for 4 years. (The prosecution asked for a 5-year long ban on this activity).
As of 2023, Katz is studying for a master's degree in education at the Tel Aviv University.