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Proekt learned that Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal cameraman Ilya Filatov quit his Kremlin job. The last thing he did was recording Putin's February 24 address, in which he announced an attack on Ukraine. The news was confirmed to the publication by Filatov himself.
«I've reached the ceiling in the profession. Plus, I'm tired of sitting in quarantine for months,» the cameraman told Proekt.
Filatov's acquaintances confirm his words: working with Putin does mean being in isolation all the time. However, according to one of the cameraman's colleagues, the Kremlin is of a different opinion. They believe Filatov's dismissal was caused by a careless statement about Russia's war against Ukraine. He himself denies this version.
Since the beginning of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, Russian TV channels have been firing or retiring their staff members one after another. On April 21, Alexander Gurevich, the host of the One Hundred to One show, resigned from VGTRK. Before that, anti-war comments on his behalf had appeared under the show's broadcasts on YouTube. In March it was reported that Zhanna Agalakova resigned from Channel One, and journalist Vadim Glusker resigned from NTV. NTV host Lilia Gildeeva, who had also resigned, told The Insider how the state channels follow guidelines «from higher up.»
On March 14, Marina Ovsyannikova from Channel One burst into a live news studio for a few seconds with a placard reading, «Stop the War! Don't believe the propaganda, you are being deceived». Before that, she recorded a video message in which she condemned the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine. On March 15, the journalist was fined 30,000 rubles. In April, she became a freelance Die Welt correspondent.