Nationalist, fashion blogger, homophobe: Anton Krasovsky's new media is looking for an audience in Odnoklassniki =»/wp-content/uploads/1a518f7ea21c6739d57f745a8ac18366.jpg» data-cfsrc=»https://novayagazeta.ru/static/records/c03952223cdb485b8727127866838286.jpeg» class=»_2QMgL» style=»display:hiddenone; » alt=»Anton Krasovsky. Photo: Kommersant» />
“The idea of the eternal”, “peace in the soul of each of us” and “recognition that everyone has the right to himself and inner peace” — this is how Anton Krasovsky defines the main idea of his new project. These liberal-philosophical concepts, in his opinion, are embodied in the idea of conservatism, which gave the name to this very project — the Conservator media.
Krasovsky intends, as indicated in a press release circulated on social networks, to seek answers to questions , which in modern times may seem to a person with his background some frondism:
“Are we so sinless? Are you sure you are right? Are we Russians different? Not Europeans? Non-Europeans? Subhumans?”
The need for an alternative platform for self-expression for the «European» Krasovsky appeared after his reasoning about the desire to drown and burn Ukrainian children, which seemed inappropriate even to the RT directorate and Alexander Bastrykin. However, despite the “personal control” of the head of the Investigative Committee, the general’s subordinates did not find any corpus delicti in the words of the propagandist. However, his reputation — if this word is applicable in principle to the stars of current Russian propaganda — has become extremely toxic, and he no longer appears on the air.
It might seem that a propagandist who has repeatedly changed camps and beliefs, he is so offended by the slap in the face he received on the state channel that he again became a liberal, if not for his new partner. The TV presenter, removed from the airs of Russia Today, is searching for his own inner world not as a solo, but as a duet with the nationalist Yegor Kholmogorov, the man to whom the term “Russian Spring” is attributed.
So far, Conservator exists only on social media — the project has channels in Telegram, Zen and RuTube, as well as publics on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. The last platform is somewhat unexpected for a startup released in 2023, but perhaps it is there, among poetic postcards and pie recipes, that the authors want to find fragments of Krasovsky's audience, who listened to him on the federal channel. All this looks — or should look — as an independent project of the off-air. But it resonates too much with what Krasovsky did on RT.
Here, for example, «Antonyms» migrated — a video interview of a frantic propagandist with various newsmakers:
- here he explains to Elena Drapeko that Zemfira *, Chulpan Khamatova and Alla Pugacheva are his personal enemies (on the cover of the issue the interlocutors are dressed in Soviet military uniforms of the forties),
- here he listens to Prokhanov, who tells how Putin was “pecked in the crown of the head by a bird of Russian history.”
- And now he is talking with Ilona Bronevitskaya about dogs.
«Antonyms» is a commercial project. The LLC of the same name opened in November last year (shortly after being taken off the air); according to the tax inspectorate, its owner is Anton Vyacheslavovich Kuznetsov-Krasovsky (this is the full name of the TV presenter). The director is the former director of Rosconcert and the Russian Media Group Ksenia Bogatyreva.
This is how the important propaganda format can be preserved, while saving the «mother» channel from the author's hypertoxicity. True, the rating has to be grown anew: on RUTUBE, the number of views of each of the new «Antonyms» does not reach 130 thousand. Krasovsky's author's film «Vacations in Gorlovka» is no exception: he went «to the front line» to atone for his deeds, though not with a machine gun, but with a camera — for the holidays. In the frame, Krasovsky is in camouflage, the “Army of Russia” merch is already familiar to him — in November he published a video of his own dances on the balcony in pajamas “Army of Russia”. The dance was dedicated to a series of missile strikes by the Russian Armed Forces on Ukraine's critical infrastructure.
The co-author of the film was the deputy and volunteer Vitaly Milonov. The policy that offered to sterilize gays and keep them in special shelters is no longer embarrassed by the fact that the partner is openly gay, who once broke the “don’t ask, don’t tell” concept that prevailed in Russian official media by coming out live.
And Krasovsky, who once publicly declared that he was “a gay, but the same person as President Putin, as Prime Minister Medvedev, as deputies of the State Duma,” apparently also does not bother that his new co-author is also the author of the idea to “create in Russia, the special service for the search for LGBT propaganda.
Moreover, 5 years ago, Milonov personally tried to torpedo the AIDS Foundation headed by Krasovsky. Center”, which deals with HIV prevention. In 2018, he demanded that the Prosecutor General’s Office ban the operation of the foundation’s website and initiate a criminal case under the “extremist” article 282, calling it a “pederastic-liberal resource”, and awarding Krasovsky himself, as the director of the organization, with the appropriate epithet. However, things did not end with anything: the organization and its website are still working, and Krasovsky is listed as the chairman of the foundation's board.
Krasovsky's partner in the Conservator, Kholmogorov, is also, as befits a nationalist, known for homophobic statements in the public field. For example, like this: “There are no 'natural gays'. There are no «biological grounds» for singling out homosexuals as a special group that needs a special regime of tolerance due to the fact that they «did not choose» what they should be.
It's hard to say, it doesn't distort whether new comrades-in-arms from each other, but, apparently, there is no need to choose, the time is this: endure — fall in love.
Moreover, it was no coincidence that Kholmogorov, who seemed to be a distant class, became a partner. While even Solovyov condemned Krasovsky’s cannibalistic statement about Ukrainian children, the nationalist devoted an entire series to justifying it on his Telegram channel. He called the condemnation of the propagandist «a hypocritical act of suppressing patriotic forces and appeasing the liberda.» However, not only this makes him related to Krasovsky. Despite their different fates, they are ex-colleagues: Kholmogorov is a columnist for Russia Today, since 2001 he has been hosting the author's TV program Egor Stanislavovich on the channel. A participant in the “Russian March”, one of the authors of the newspaper “Special Forces of Russia”, as well as an employee of the information and analytical service of the Association of Veterans of the Anti-Terror Unit “Alpha”, in 2003 he headed the “Society” department of the newspaper “Konservator” — it was the memories of her that inspired Krasovsky to new project. The newspaper has not been published for a long time, but the evidence is still valid.
Kholmogorov is known for his bright statements, which will undoubtedly adorn the new media. For example, such (talking about the events of 2014): “This is a war. War is a way of deception. If it is necessary for a holy cause, we will lie with the whole country.
The release of «Conservative» is provided with the coordinates of the press secretary of the project: this is Oleg Trofimov. A person with the same name and surname last August was responsible for press accreditation at the showing of the RT documentary “Mariupol. Russian city. When Krasovsky was on RT, he was also mentioned as a representative of the press service in messages about the release of the next «Antonyms» on the channel. True, the e-mail was indicated differently — it, according to open sources, was used by a certain Oleg Sharan. His data coincides with those of a PR man, a fashion blogger and a fashionista from the capital. Previously, like Krasovsky, he collaborated with GQ. He was not seen to be prone to ultra-patriotism and military style.
We asked Oleg Trofimov about the sources of funding for the Conservator and its connection with RT, writing to him at the address indicated in the press release, but received no answer. And when we got through to him, we heard that Trofimov was forbidden to answer us by the company's management «due to the status of our publication.» According to Krasovsky's media managers, Novaya Gazeta has the status of a foreign agent and is banned in Russia. This, of course, is a lie.