Vladimir Putin’s personal cameraman quit the Kremlin immediately after recording his notorious announcement that he was invading Ukraine, it has emerged.
The timing of Ilya Filatov’s departure led to strong speculation that faced dismissal because of a negative attitude to the war.
He denied this, saying that - in his 50s - he had “reached the ceiling in my profession”, and had become weary of Putin’s Covid caution which means his entire entourage are isolated and forbidden from contact with the outside world.
Some had turned to alcohol in the Kremlin coronavirus bubble, said one source.
Filatov’s abrupt departure after Putin's notorious 24 February broadcast came as prominent Russian TV journalist Inna Afinogenova, 33, quit ‘propaganda channel’ RT specifically blaming the war.
Filatov's colleagues say his departure “coincided so strangely with the start of the war” that there were rumours he had been fired for making “careless” statements about the “special military operation” in Ukraine, reported independent media Proekt in revealing his departure.
“Filatov himself denied this version,” said the publication, which is banned in Russia and operates from outside the country.
“After the start of the war, many Russian officials were in such shock that they were ready to believe in any version."
Filatov instead pointed to curbs in the Kremlin due to Putin's quarantine rules, linked to his obsession with not contracting Covid-19.
His job had been to chronicle all Putin’s activities, a role he had for more than a decade, after working for state TV.
His sudden exit is a surprise since he has a close family connection with the Kremlin.
His grandfather [also Ilya Filatov] was director of photography of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and made all official portraits of the USSR’s leaders from Nikita Khrushchev to Mikhail Gorbachev.
His brother was in the KGB - like Putin.
When history is written of the Putin era, his work on Putin’s activities will be a primary source.
“I believe that unedited video with sound now has the greatest documentary value - from start to finish without any comments,” he once said.
Moscow-based Afinogenova worked for RT’s Spanish channel RT en Español, and her absence from the screen had triggered queries from viewers.
In a private video, she revealed she could no longer work for the channel because of Putin’s war.
She said: “Many of those who follow my work ask and ask where I am, if I'm alive, if I'm well, what's wrong with me, if I'll be back.
“And it is true that I owe them an explanation…
“I have indeed left RT and will no longer be returning ….
“Basically, I do not agree with this war…”
She told her fans that “no matter how precise they say the attacks are, I will not agree with a war that affects the civilian population…
“And I don't care whether it is the US, France, Israel, Ukraine, Ukraine itself - which is what it has been doing for years - or Russia dropping bombs on Ukraine.
“I cannot normalise it.”
She also opposed the West’s wars, for example in Iraq and Libya, she said.
“I also don't understand this [Ukrainian] war from a strategic point of view, from the point of view of fighting NATO's militarism and aggressiveness.”
She added: “I would also like to talk about war propaganda…
“I speak for myself: I'm not going to do war propaganda.”
