Zhanna Agalakova, former host of the Vremya news program on Channel One, returned her state awards to Vladimir Putin. She wrote about this on her Facebook page.
Agalakova sent the Order of Friendship and the medal of the Order of Merit to the Fatherland in the name of Putin to the Kremlin from France. The journalist attached the following appeal to the awards:
“Mr. President, your leadership is leading the country to the abyss. I consider your awards unacceptable."
“I was going to for a long time, but did not know how to do it better. Throw away? Burn? But this would be disrespectful to the state award and to the very worthy people who were awarded these orders and medals. I was not sure that the post office would accept a parcel with such an address. It turned out that everything is possible, even in the days of the new Iron Curtain. At the post office, they were surprised, of course, and immediately began to help draw up a customs declaration. They promised that in three days it would reach the addressee, ”Agalakova told The Insider.
Agalakova has been working on Channel One since 1999. She hosted the day and evening editions of Novosti, as well as the Vremya and Night Time programs. Since 2005, she worked as a correspondent for Channel One in Paris, from 2013 to 2019 – in New York, after which she returned to Paris again.
Her last report on Pervy was published on February 17, 2022. After February 24, Agalakova condemned the war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine and on March 3 filed a letter of resignation from Channel One. On March 17, the journalist was officially fired.