Zakhar Prilepin

Zakhar Prilepin is an award-winning novelist, essayist, journalist, political activist, TV presenter, actor and musician. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages and sold worldwide. Named Writer of the Year in 2016, he is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Bestseller Award, Yasnaya Polyana and many others. Many of Prilepin's works have been turned into stage plays and feature films. "Probably the most important writer in modern Russia, a sensitive and intelligent critic of his country's condition." - Newsweek. Prilepin has hosted several popular TV shows including the interview series Tea with Zakhar on TsarGrad TV, a popular music show Salt on Ren TV and a political program Russian Lessons on NTV. The shows are available on YouTube. Formerly a darling of Western literary critics and political commentators on Putin's Russia, in 2014 he attracted considerable wrath and ostracism for his stance on Crimea and the conflict in the East of Ukraine. He first went to the war-torn region of Donbass in 2014 as a journalist and published articles about the conflict in several media outlets including Komsomolskaya Pravda and Svobodnaya Pressa, which he edits. Being familiar with the situation there, he then started to gather and supply humanitarian aid to the people of the Donbass region, as well as military aid to the rebels. Finally, in 2016 he joined the rebel forces as a deputy commander of one of the volunteer battalions and remains there to this day.