Russian Propagandist’s Interview Ignites Debate Over Sympathy Worthiness — Meduza

Russian propagandist Anton Krasovsky’s controversial journey sparked intense debate following his recent interview with Ksenia Sobchak, where he oscillated between supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and expressing personal regret about its human cost.

The April 13 interview, conducted partly in Krasovsky’s apartment—complete with religious icons and a Vladimir Putin portrait—and partly in a police van driving through central Moscow, revealed the complex contradictions of a man who has traveled from liberal circles to becoming one of Russia’s most aggressive war propagandists.

Krasovsky, 50, has had a remarkable career trajectory. Born in the Moscow region and having spent part of his youth in Ukraine, he became a recognizable media figure in Russia during the 1990s and 2000s, working for NTV television and prestigious publications like Vogue and GQ. His political activities included heading campaign headquarters for presidential candidates Mikhail Prokhorov in 2011 and Ksenia Sobchak in 2018.

As an openly gay man living with HIV, Krasovsky founded the AIDS.Center foundation in 2016 to help others with the condition. His dramatic pivot came in 2019 when he joined RT, Russia’s state propaganda outlet, eventually becoming head of its Russian-language broadcasting directorate.

In 2022, Krasovsky was dismissed from RT after making shocking on-air statements calling for Ukrainian children to be “drowned” and “burned”—comments that triggered an investigation by Russia’s Investigative Committee, though no criminal charges followed. He has since launched a media outlet called Konservator with fellow propagandist Yegor Kholmogorov and remains under Western sanctions for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

During the interview with Sobchak, Krasovsky made several striking statements that revealed his conflicted position. “I consider Ukraine my country. My homeland is the USSR, my homeland is the Russian Empire—I consider Ukraine part of it,” he said, while also acknowledging the suffering caused by the war.

When discussing his infamous call to harm Ukrainian children, Krasovsky claimed he had “phrased it wrong” and had apologized, though he maintained the underlying sentiment about combating resistance. “I was just on a roll,” he explained, expressing regret primarily for putting RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan “in a difficult position.”

Perhaps most revealing were Krasovsky’s comments about fear and the current climate in Russia. “The time for open conversation is over. I’m scared shitless of a lot of things,” he confessed. “I’ve turned into a Soviet person. I’m just scared shitless of everything.”

The interview generated significant online reaction, with many viewers noting Krasovsky’s seemingly unstable emotional state. The most-liked comment under Sobchak’s video observed, “Judging by her recent interviews, Ksenia is writing a dissertation in psychiatry.”

Among the most notable responses was from journalist and LGBTQ+ activist Renat Davletgildeev, a former close friend of Krasovsky who had cut ties over his “transformation.” In a poignant social media post, Davletgildeev expressed continued personal affection despite their ideological divide: “We’re on opposite sides of the barricades, of course. But who the fuck am I if I pretend those years never happened?”

This sentiment drew criticism from other journalists like Andrei Loshak, who argued that reconciliation was impossible given Krasovsky’s role in “building a hell” in Russia. The debate expanded to include numerous media figures weighing in on whether Krasovsky deserved sympathy despite his propaganda work.

Konstantin Bogomolov, Sobchak’s current husband who has taken pro-Kremlin positions, used the discussion to criticize what he called the “Russian liberal intelligentsia,” suggesting they were hypocritically fascinated by Krasovsky’s “notes of decay, repentance, pride, humiliation, self-flagellation, and tears.”

The Krasovsky interview and subsequent reactions highlight the deep personal and ideological divisions in Russian society caused by the war in Ukraine, where former friends and colleagues now find themselves separated by seemingly unbridgeable moral and political divides.