Journalistic career (2000–2017) For some time, Primakov worked in radio
Echo of Moscow, in
TASS, in the magazine
Kommersant-Money, published in the
Obshchaya Gazeta newspaper. He has worked in television since 2002. Initially, he worked on the
TVS channel as a military correspondent of the "News" and "Results" programs. He was among the journalists of the TV channel covering the
Iraq War and worked as a correspondent in
Israel and
Iraq. In May 2003, he left TVS and started working for
NTV. He made stories for the programs "Today", "Country and the World" and "Profession is Reporter". From 2003 to 2005, he worked most often in Moscow, rarely–special forces in the
Middle East. He covered the
terrorist attack at the "Wings" rock festival in July 2003. While working at NTV as a correspondent he worked on business trips in Israel,
Palestine,
Afghanistan,
Pakistan,
Libya and
Iraq. During his missions to Israel and Palestine, he covered the terrorist acts of Palestinian extremist organizations in Israeli cities. From 2005 to 2007 he was the Chief of the Middle East Bureau of NTV. In his reports, he covered the
2006 Lebanon War in the war zone and in Israel. Also during the work on NTV he covered the events in the
Gaza Strip (
Gaza–Israel conflict) and on the
West Bank. Repeatedly worked in a combat zone. For the organization of the evacuation of Russian citizens from the Gaza strip in the summer of 2007 during the coup carried out by
Hamas, he was awarded the medal of the
EMERCOM and UNHCR "Member of the Emergency Humanitarian Operation". He resigned from NTV in June 2007. From autumn 2007 to October 2011, he was a correspondent of the Directorate of information programs of
Channel One Russia (TV programs: "News", "Time", and "Other News"). From April 2008 to January 2011, he was the head of the Channel One bureau in Israel. In particular, as an employee of the TV company he worked on business trips in Libya during the
Battle of Tripoli in the summer of 2011. From 2011 to 2014 he worked in the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Turkey and Jordan. From March 2015, he was the author and host of the program "International Review" on TV channel
Russia 24.
Political career (2017–2020) On March 20, 2017, Primakov was approved as a member of the
Civic Chamber from 2017 to 2020 by the presidential quota. In May 2017, he became an adviser to the
Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin on international issues and humanitarian projects. In 2018, he was a trustee of the Russian
presidential candidate Vladimir Putin.
State Duma (2018–2020) In April 2018, Primakov announced his participation in the
United Russia primary election for the State Duma
by-election in the
Balashov constituency. Primakov won the primary on June 4, gaining 72.3% of the vote. He was elected to the
State Duma on 9 September 2018 on a Single Electoral Day. He was a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs. On 25 June 2020, he resigned due to being appointed in a diplomatic position.
Diplomatic career (2020–present) On 25 June 2020, he was appointed as head of the
Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo). On 20 May 2021, he accepted the offer to lead the Program committee of the international youth Forum Russia — Africa : whats next? on MGIMO base. In April 2022, the
Moscow Times reported that Primakov had stated that the
Z and V military symbols as used by the Russian military during the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine were "symbols of the very liberation of
Ukraine from the obvious evil of terrorists and bandits". On 25 February 2023, the
European Union imposed sanctions against Primakov as head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (
Rossotrudnichestvo), which seeks to consolidating public perception of the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian, and for manifesting support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. On 12 February 2025, Russian President Vladimir
Putin awarded the Order of Honor to Yevgeny Primakov. ==Personal life==