Russia

Egor Prosvirnin

Egor "Pogrom" Prosvirnin – top russian right wing propagandist, founder of "Sputnik and Pogrom" nationalist online media which was banned by russian general prosecutor in 2017 and Czar.tv YouTube channel. Prosvirnin promotes russian nationalism which usually comes down to the hatred of migrants. Has commited suicide in bizzare conditions on 27 December 2021.

Yegor graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities, the Faculty of Philology. He avoided serving in the Russian army, but wrote in his blog that he "swore an oath to Russia".

In his youth, Prosvirnin's favorite read was Game.EXE magazine, and the graduate philologist's first official job was PC Gamer, an international magazine dedicated to gaming industry news and publishing reviews of newly released games, as well as materials on hardware and classic games.

**Suicide**

Prosvirnin died after falling out the window of an apartment building near the “Armenia” store on Tversky Boulevard in Moscow. According to preliminary data, he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident. He was totally naked and there was a knife and a pepper spray near his body. According to preliminary data, the reason for the suicide was a family quarrel.

**Sputnik and Pogrom**

In 2012 Prosvirnin launched the "Sputnik and Pogrom" community in VKontakte and then eponymous site was soon created. A distinctive feature of the resource was its progressive design and the presence of long texts about interethnic conflicts and historical events, and initially also about Russian writers, composers and scientists. The name, according to Prosvirnin, includes Russian words, understandable in the world without translation and representing the "triumph of the mind and the rampancy of the popular element".

The fame came to Egor and his brainchild in June 2013, when Sputnik and Pogrom congratulated its readers on their attempt to "liberate Russia from the Bolshevik yoke". Prosvirnin is the author of an article in which he called June 22 not a day of mourning, but a day of vengeance. In the text, he praised the White Guards who had gone over to Hitler's service. "White Russians were going back to the red sovdepia. Without pity. Without mercy. Without sentiment," wrote Prosvirnin

The publication was highlighted by Israeli journalist Israel Shamir, and then by newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda", which ironically highlighted not only Prosvirnin's views, but also his body shape. The tv show "Central Television" described "SaP" as "nationalism with a human face". Supporters and opposition figures noted the growing popularity of "SaP". Both russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and liberal journalist Yevgenia Albats cited the resource.

Prosvirnin promoted his views on various resources, from Twitter to Telegram and later on his own YouTube channel. Main feature of "SaP" was a paid subscription and the corresponding slogan "You want to be Russian, pay up".

In 2014 Prosvirnin raised funds through "SaP" to support prorussian militants in southeastern Ukraine and promised full loyalty to the Russian government if Kiev became a Russian city again. Yegor joined the "25 January Committee", formed in early 2016, but left the organization after a couple of months, accusing one of its cofounders, Igor Strelkov, of trying to take over the committee and propagating communist views.

On September 17, 2015, Egor Prosvirnin's apartment was searched as part of a criminal case opened over an article posted on "Sputnik and Pogrom", but investigators were unable to prove his connection to the site.

In the summer of 2017, "Sputnik and Pogrom", along with a number of other nationalist Internet resources, was blocked at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. Earlier, the site had been declared extremist and blocked on the territory of Belarus. After an attempt to change the domain name in the fall of 2018, the project announced its closure. VK community https://vk.com/sputnikipogrom is still available for 115,000 subscribers.

In 2021, Prosvirnin completed his book "Why America is Dying." According to Yegor, he switched from nationalist to monarchist beliefs.

**Czar.tv**

In 2019 Egor founded a Czar.tv YouTube channel to promote Russian nationalism and monarchic ideology. The most viewed video is dedicated to "russophobia in the Tyva Republic" and another popular video is Egor's speech about deceased russian nazi Maxim Tesak with whom he was friends.

In 2021 Egor appeared on the main russian state tv channel "Russia Today".