Editing Kuz (section)

==Background==
Kuz was born in 1988 in Omsk, Russia. To a poor family, on the outskirts of a village, several miles from the Kazakh border.<ref name=":1">[https://archive.fo/QWh0b#selection-41.0-45.427 https://archive.fo/QWh0b]</ref><ref>http://okato-kod.ru/55024000006.html</ref> Kuz is married,<ref><nowiki>https://kuz.lol</nowiki></ref> He lives in Memphis, Tennessee after allegedly fleeing the Russian Federation for tax evasion.<ref>https://archive.fo/QWh0b</ref><ref>https://archive.fo/QWh0b</ref>

Kuz's career on the internet began in 2005, with the release of the extremely popular "9channel", a Russian textboard forum which he claims was the first of its kind in Russia. Since then, kuz has made, renewed, or bought dozens of other websites. 

9channel grew but never became particularly active, although kuz likes to pretend it was "the biggest anonymous website in Russia", [[though]] this is very [[Debunked|easibly disproven]]. The website was widely known to be only a hotbed for the sharing of [[Dancing swede.mp4|illegal material]], pirated movies, and "crime announcements", or posts announcing or displaying small crimes (like vandalism) anonymously. The latter became such a problem that it is specifically written into the Kolyma Networks rules that "crime announcements" are banned, although this did little to curb the problem. The website was shut down in 2017 along with most of kuz's websites.<ref>https://archive.fo/QWh0b</ref><ref>https://kolyma.org/about </ref><ref><nowiki>https://devyach.net/9ch.html</nowiki></ref>

Proof of the existance of 9channel is scarce as users of the website were generally rather secretive. There are no public archives, as kuz refuses to release any, the site also is not on archive.org or archive.is because it is was tor-only.<ref>Please replace this citation with one from one of kuz's sites. He has said this multiple times but i cant find it</ref> There is however a "Devyach" (9ch in Russian) twitter account which contains a tor link and was created in 2009.<ref><nowiki>https://twitter.com/devyach</nowiki></ref> This is very likely the real 9channel as it cites its location as Omsk, Russia, and contains a common 9ch slogan in the description.<ref>https://twitter.com/devyach</ref>
[[File:Kuz army photo.png|thumb|Kuz in army uniform.]]
In 2008, kuz contracted [[Faggot|HIV]] from a prostitute in poland.<ref>https://archive.fo/QWh0b#selection-131.312-131.424</ref> However, some anonymous truthers suggest he actually contracted it from being brutally raped in the Russian military, which is a common occurrence.<ref>https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/02/17/decade-after-military-reform-hazing-plagues-russian-army-a69309</ref>

=== Rumors of death ===


On September 29th, numerous<ref>https://sp.logwarehouse.net/read.cgi/soy/1187661</ref><ref>https://sp.logwarehouse.net/read.cgi/soy/1187644</ref><ref>https://sp.logwarehouse.net/read.cgi/soy/1187607</ref><ref>https://sp.logwarehouse.net/read.cgi/soy/1187599</ref> threads were created purporting a fictitious<ref>Judging by recent events, it can be concluded kuz has not yet died.</ref> rumor that kuz had died. The rumors were so prolific, that several soyteens became distraught<ref>https://sp.logwarehouse.net/read.cgi/soy/1187704#p1187782</ref>, believing it to be true, and many fake screenshots appeared.<ref>https://sp.logwarehouse.net/src/156163.png</ref>

{{Quoting|September 29th, 2022, 5:49PM Kratovka Regional Hospital, Omsk, Russia. The man with just 3 hours to live lies asleep in a hospital bed. Kuznetsov was once a strong man, at 6'0, he possessed a moderate, though not muscular build, and commanded a smooth, baritone voice which spurred compliance and attention. Now, at the age of just 34, the diseases which ravage his body barely allow him to utter childlike whispers, his thick country accent making him almost impossible to understand. The black rings around his eyes and his shallow, sunken face accentuate his gaunt appearance, and the aids-induced tremors prevent him from performing even the simplest of day to day tasks. He spends most of his time sleeping, surrounded by his security team and his 22 year old Wife, Nedelya Kuznetsov.

He eventually succumbs to his ailments. At 8:46 PM, with his wife and his secretary by his side, Yuri Kuznetsov, the legendary Russian who forever changed the face of Soyjakking, dies. He is just 34 years old.|- Anonymous Truther, citing his experiences as kuz's personal doctor.}}

=== Name and Citizenship change ===
On October 1st, kuz announced via telegram that he had attempted to change his legal name and applied for Turkish citizenship.<ref>https://t.me/kuztalk/11</ref> During the second SOTS livestream, Kuz revealed that the official name change never came to fruition.

=== Religious and political opinions ===

Kuz's political opinions seem to change to fit whatever is currently best for him at the moment, although he did once condemn conflict in ukraine, writing a lengthy blogpost on why it was bad from a moral standpoint.<blockquote>"The estimated toll of all the deaths caused by the Conflict in Ukraine is 33,000. Both civilians and soldiers. When the media reports on these numbers, they will simply leave it at that, but the actual price of that number is immeasurably greater."  " [... ]This is why I will never support conflict in Ukraine or elsewhere."<ref>https://t.me/kuz_channel/46</ref></blockquote>During his rare live appearances, he has revealed little about his personal political beliefs, preffering to "keep it to himself". Although he says he is not racist, or a nationalist.

==== Conversion to Islam ====
[[File:Kuz new years post.png|thumb|Kuz requests that Allah blesses the sharty]]
In December of 2022 and January of 2023, questions were asked about kuz's apparent conversion to Islam. Starting with a telegram post on December 26th that simply read, "is islam the way?"<ref>https://t.me/kuztalk/65</ref> followed 5 days later on new years eve by a celebratory post, wherein kuz concluded the message with a request for Allah to bless his users, suffixed with a honoric muslim phrase (Sall’Allahu alayhi wasalam).<ref><nowiki>https://t.me/kuztalk/68</nowiki></ref>

=== Source of wealth===
Kuz's net worth is about 108M rubles, or roughly 1.4 Million dollars. He regularly drops large amounts of money on websites he likes in attempts to buy them. Offering "2k for the sharty" at one point. He also bought a website called Vidlii, for an undisclosed number, allgedly about 5,000. In 2021 he bought Gurochan, and has offered thousands for other imageboard websites<ref>Various self-leaked emails over the years. Unknown how many of these offers were serious but at least 2 (Sharty and lainchan) actually began before the admins changed their mind.</ref> His company, KolymaNET, is also the largest internet provider in Omsk, and kuz owns several datacenters in Russia and Turkey.<ref>"[...] We also offer colocation and DDOS protection from our datacenters in Russia, Turkey, and USA." - kolyma.org frontpage</ref>

Some speculate most of his money was gained through an illicit exit scam,<ref>The Rychuvak Scandal (see below)</ref> but the source of his money is unknown. He has said on a few occasions that it was from "smart investments" and "good luck"