Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-backed Kherson administration, in his workplace in Kherson on July 20. A portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the wall behind him.
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Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-backed Kherson administration, in his workplace in Kherson on July 20. A portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the wall behind him.
AFP/Getty Photographs
Kirill Stremousov, the general public face of the Russian occupation of Ukraine’s Kherson area, has died in a automotive accident, in response to the collaborationist authorities there.
The area’s Moscow-installed administration head, Vladimir Saldo, introduced the loss of life Wednesday on the Telegram social media app, calling Stremousov, his appearing deputy governor and occupation spokesman, “one of many brightest.”
There have been no additional particulars concerning the reported loss of life.
Stremousov, Ukrainian by delivery, was a 45-year-old pro-Russian propagandist identified for posting voluminous movies — typically from his automotive.
“The ‘Ukronazis,’ pushed by their American masters, are pressured to face sure loss of life,” he mentioned in a single latest video, repeating Moscow’s false claims that Ukraine is run by U.S.-backed Nazis.
Stremousov insisted that Russia’s victory was inevitable, however that has change into tougher to promote in latest weeks as Russia suffered extra defeats within the area. On Wednesday, Moscow introduced it was pulling troops out of Kherson metropolis, however the Ukrainian authorities mentioned it noticed no indicators Russian forces have been leaving with no combat. Kherson is a strategically and symbolically vital regional heart that fell comparatively simply to the Russians early within the battle.
Stremousov had a colourful, eccentric previous. In a video he posted on YouTube in 2017, he holds his toddler daughter by the arm and leg and swings her round as a type of what he calls train, which sparked accusations on-line of kid abuse.
Stremousov ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Kherson and the Ukrainian parliament, and have become a widely known opponent of vaccines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
He initially served within the Kherson area as a Ukrainian authorities fisheries official. Later, he long-established himself right into a gadfly and political blogger who pressed the federal government to assist abnormal residents.
Roman Tsviakh, a fellow civic activist, who now lives in Poland, recalled that Stremousov publicly confronted officers after some residents fell and broke bones in an ice storm a number of years again. The subsequent day, the sidewalks have been lined in salt, he recalled.
“He appeared to me to be an sincere one that actually wished to work within the curiosity of individuals,” mentioned Volodymyr Marus, a journalist who helped prepare Stremousov how one can work as a civic activist. However he has since modified his thoughts concerning the collaborator.
Ukrainian intelligence officers and previous associates instructed NPR that Stremousov had a thirst for wealth and commenced utilizing his weblog to extort cash from native companies in change for not publicizing their wrongdoing. Tsviakh says this habits was commonplace, however a part of Kherson’s tradition of corruption, which made the area a simple goal for Russian infiltration upfront of the February invasion.
“Folks like Stremousov advanced due to a damaged system,”Tsviakh mentioned.
Stremousov allied himself with officers equivalent to Saldo and others who publicly switched sides and backed the Russians in February.
“When the battle started, all of them began to work as collaborators,” mentioned Marus. “They weren’t pro-Russian. These have been simply individuals who wished cash. They’d no sense of patriotism or function. They’re merely traitors to Ukraine.”
Kateryna Malofieieva contributed to this story.
