Zakhar Prilepin, a writer and co-chairman of the A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth party, is going to take part in the next presidential election and is preparing for the nomination. Vedomosti writes about this, citing sources in A Just Russia and the Presidential Administration.
“Prilepin wants to show the Presidential Administration that he could take part in the elections. To do this, he is building a headquarters structure separate [from the party] and is active in the regions,” one of them said.
In 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, Prilepin said that he had rethought his attitude towards the modern Russian government, declared a “personal truce” and the absence of “the slightest inducement to confrontation” to it.
From 2016 to 2018, Prilepin took part in hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
In 2019, Zakhar Prilepin said in an interview: “No matter what they say, I managed a combat unit that killed people. In large quantities. I know this well, and how can I deal with it later?.. These people just died, they just lie in the ground, they are simply killed. And there are many. It's just that not a single unit from the Donetsk battalions could compare with my battalion in terms of performance. Everything that we did was a goofy mess that we did. This makes me especially laugh in the context of attacks on me.
In February 2022, the European Union imposed personal sanctions against Prilepin, who previously signed a letter supporting the Russian invasion.
Since December 2018, Prilepin has been deputy artistic director for the literary part of the Moscow Art Theater. M. Gorky.