It was popularized by the padonki subculture on websites like Udaff.com and Fuck.ru (currently defunct) created by entrepreneur Egor Lavrov and Konstantin Rykov, now a deputy of the Duma.
Udaff.com started in 2001 as a brainchild of Dmitry Sokolovsky, an electrical engineer from Saint Petersburg, nicknamed "Udav" (Удав, translated as "boa").