Putin’s personal sycophant Pavel Zarubin was born on September 7, 1981, in Beloretsk, Bashkortostan. Unlike other famous VGTRK journalists, little is known about Zarubin’s life, but he will not be able to hide himself from retribution for his deeds. After graduating from school 1 in Beloretsk, Pavel moves to Yekaterinburg and enters the journalism department of A. M. Gorky Ural State University in 1998.
Even during his studies at university, Pavel Zarubin began to actively master his profession, and in his third year he became a reporter for the local TV company “Channel 4”. At work, he proved to be a promising employee and was even awarded the prestigious TEFI-Region 2002 television award. While working in Yekaterinburg, he was noticed by employees of the VGTRK holding company and invited to work in Moscow.
After getting a job at VGTRK in 2002, Pavel Zarubin became a staff member of the “Vesti” program, where he was a correspondent. He achieved success in this field as well, becoming in 2005 a member of a kind of journalistic “elite” – the “Kremlin pool. From that moment, Zarubin begins the turn in his life from professional journalist to sycophant and builder of the “cult of personality” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The real apotheosis of sycophancy was Pavel’s participation, along with another famous propagandist, Solovyov, in the propaganda program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin,” in which they show stories about how cleverly Putin caught a pencil or other pro-Kremlin nonsense. Pavel was also the host of the program “Direct line with Vladimir Putin.
To be fair, Zarubin was the first foreign journalist to interview North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Russia. But that is Paul’s only worthwhile achievement. Unfortunately, he has been overshadowed by other unpleasant events, such as during the negotiation of the Minsk agreements in February 2015, Zarubin indelicately shouted out an inappropriate question to then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for which he was suspended from covering the said event. Pavel is also known for his attack on Russian oppositionist Garry Gasparov during the latter’s participation in the “Free Russia Forum” event in Lithuania. Zarubin asked Gasparov provocative questions and provoked an altercation with the crew. This was not the end of the incident, and the VGTRK camera crew, along with Pavel, were deported from Lithuania.
Having completely destroyed his reputation as a professional journalist, Zarubin had no choice but to continue praising Putin and was the first journalist to whom Putin gave an interview after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. With this act, Zarubin proved his loyalty to the Kremlin and became an accomplice in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the Russian Federation’s war crimes against Ukrainian citizens. But Paul should not think that his proximity to the “sun-face” would save him from a just retribution. The punishment for serving the bloody regime will be harsh and unavoidable.
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