Kots was born on 3 September 1978, in
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on
Sakhalin. His father,
Igor Kots, was the nephew of Jewish mathematician
Samuel Kotz, and worked as the editor-in-chief of
Sovetsky Sport from 2003 to 2013. A month after his birth, the Kots family moved to
Khabarovsk. He then went to school in
Vladivostok. In 1993, Kots moved to
Moscow, where he graduated from high school and studied at university. From 1996 to 1998, he served his
compulsory military service in the 38th Separate Communications Regiment of the
Russian Airborne Forces, in the Moscow region, Military Unit 64164. After completing his military service, Kots continued his studies. On 3 September 2004, during a trip to
Beslan, together with Russian special services, he participated in the evacuation of hostage children from the
Beslan school siege. Together with his colleague
Dmitry Steshin, he prepared material for the 20th anniversary of
the disaster at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and lived for several days in the ghost city of
Pripyat. In June 2006, along with other journalists, in
Feodosia (
Crimea), Kots covered the actions of the local population against
NATO and the US–Ukrainian exercises Sea Breeze. At the same time, he personally actively protested against the presence of NATO troops in Crimea, taking part in the illegal hoisting of the
flag of Russia on the roof of the building of the military sanatorium of the
Ministry of Defence of Ukraine in
Yevpatoria. On 9 August 2008, Kots went to
Tskhinvali District to cover the events of the
Russo-Georgian War. While reporting from here, he sustained shrapnel wounds in his right arm and leg. Subsequently, he revealed that his satellite phone had been used by the commander of the
58th Combined Arms Army, General
Anatoly Khrulyov, to aim rocket artillery at Georgian tanks in
Khetagurovo. On 16 January 2009, he was awarded with the
Medal "For Courage" for this trip. In 2010, Kots broadcast reports from the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was destroyed by
an earthquake. During the
Arab Spring in April 2011, he was captured while covering the
war in Libya, together with his colleague Dmitry Steshin and three journalists from the Russian
NTV channel. The reporters were accused of being intelligence agents working for
Muammar Gaddafi's regime. All reporters were released with the help of the Italian military stationed at the
Benghazi airfield. In 2016, Kots reported from Syria. In April 2016, he was awarded by Russian Minister of Defence
Sergei Shoigu with the
Medal "Participant of the military operation in Syria". In October–November 2016, he was one of the few Russian journalists in Iraq covering the
Battle of Mosul. In January–February 2019, Kots covered
protests and unrest in Venezuela. In 2020, Kots was in
Nagorno-Karabakh, covering the
Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. On 29 October 2023, when a mob stormed
Uytash Airport after the arrival of a
Red Wings Airlines flight from
Tel Aviv during the
Gaza war, Kots lambasted the Dagestanis who participated in the storming and instead suggested them "to kill Jews" in the
Gaza Strip or in the
Presidential Office Building in Kyiv.
Serker Yakubkhanov, a journalist for
Current Time, has described publications by Kots as nationalist and xenophobic.
Ukraine Since the beginning of the
Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, Kots has been covering the war, mostly in
Donbas. He has done so without official accreditation from Ukraine. In early 2014, Kots worked with Dmitry Steshin, in
Sloviansk. After Ukrainian forces
took back Sloviansk, Kots and Steshin relocated to
Donetsk. Kots has repeatedly been accused of biased and unconfirmed information in his reports. Since the full-scale
Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kots has been actively covering the situation in Ukraine, with a pro-Kremlin bias. Commenting on the
Bucha massacre, Kots denied responsibility of Russian troops and accused the Ukrainian side of staging all the events. The
Security Service of Ukraine banned Kots from entering Ukraine "due to violation of the law on the status of foreigners and stateless persons". In May 2022, he was sanctioned by the United Kingdom and later by Australia. == See also ==