Mykhailo Galustyan, Russian comedian
Mykhailo Galustyan/ Instagram
Russian comedian Mykhailo Galustyan’s position on the events in Ukraine strangely coincided with the Kremlin’s rhetoric since 2014. When Russia illegally annexed Crimea and transferred its troops to Donbas, the comedian claimed that the Maidan and all other events in Ukraine were “directed by those who want to weaken our countries and turn them against each other.” Galustyan called the war in Donbas “civil war”.
At the end of March 2015, a scandal broke out, in which the name of comedian Galustyan also appeared. The hacker group “Anonymous International” made public the SMS correspondence of the then deputy chairman of the Russian Presidential Administration for Domestic Policy, Timur Prokopenko. As it became known from the correspondence, Galustyan published custom materials on his social networks provided to him by the Kremlin. In particular, these were texts about the events on the Maidan, the war in Ukraine, the crash of the MH17 airliner, etc. The comedian also participated in various events dedicated to Putin, for instance, the presentation of T-shirts with the image of the Russian dictator.
It is interesting that sometime after the publication of commissioned materials in social networks, Galustyan begged to be awarded the title of Honoured Artist of Russia for his loyalty to the Kremlin.
The comedian is the president of the Association of Military Tactical Games and since May 2016 has been a member of the headquarters of the Young Army military-patriotic movement, actually urging young Russians to take up arms and go to war in the future.
Galustyan was also a member of the “Putin Team” movement, created in 2017 to support Putin in the 2018 presidential elections in the Russian Federation. Then many Russian stars joined this movement. Later, information began to emerge in the Russian mass media that the founder of the movement, hockey player Oleksandr Ovechkin, did not come up with such an idea himself – everything was developed and approved by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.
Galustyan has repeatedly visited Crimea, occupied by Russia, and in 2019, he even made the film “Artek. The Great Journey” there.
Main statements
1. In 2014, he was officially invited to a formal reception for Putin on Russia Day. He stated that he was glad to have the opportunity to celebrate with the President of the Russian Federation:
2. He stated that the tragedy of the Malaysian Boeing-777 is allegedly another provocation by the West to quarrel the “fraternal nations” of Ukraine and the Russian Federation (21 July 2014):
3. He publicly congratulated Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on his birthday and praised him for his services (21 May 2016):
4. He called the Maidan events staged. He stated that allegedly Ukrainians and Russians are trying to target each other (27 April 2020)
