The nice thing about Russians (I'm from that neighborhood originally) is that they are absolutely crazy and will try just about anything. They also probably have/had second-best science culture behind US (though they suffered significant brain drain as huge numbers of educated Jews left in the last 25 years). They have less regulation and quite a few rich people with ideas. Seems like a worthwhile group to keep in touch with.
What is a "hologram-like avatar"? Do the figure that a robot body isn't good enough, and they want one that A) can't interact with the world meaningfully, and B) is physically impossible?
By "hologram-like" I think they just mean that it would be 3-dimensional and based on simulated physics. Probably what they have in mind is bodies generated with a smart material like Utility fog.
That anyone is claiming the bodies would be hologram based is an extremely uncharitable interpretation. Obviously the physics of holograms does not provide a reasonable framework for human body replacements (at least, outside of Star Trek). But that doesn't mean physical bodies generated by simulated physics are not like holograms in a certain sense.