KORTUNOVA Marina Alexandrovna

She is a veteran of media operations in the state propaganda infrastructure of Iran and russia.
Since 2014, she has been working as a correspondent for the Iranian state-run Press TV in Moscow, and in 2019 was appointed as the bureau chief. Her reporting has covered more than a decade of major geopolitical events, including russia's invasion of Ukraine, bilateral initiatives between russia and Iran, the BRICS and Eurasia summits, and the Syria peace talks.
Her assignments and programs are correlated with the strategic priorities of the kremlin and the Iranian Islamic Republican Broadcasting Company (IRIB). Fluent in both the language and ideological positioning expected of state media, Kortunova plays a key role in laundering narratives, presenting russian actions as humanitarian, Iranian goals as peaceful, and Western responses as imperialistic.
In addition, Kortunova's reporting is characterized by glorifying russia as a peacemaker, discrediting the Ukrainian government, systematically presenting fabricated or falsified poll data (for example, about support for the referendum at a level of over 80%), and quoting only kremlin-approved analysts.
Kortunova was involved in the launch of RT Arabic and has reported from the field for several speakers in the Gulf countries who hold authoritarian or anti-Western positions.
On September 27, 2022, she wrote a press release describing the referendums on russia's annexation of Ukraine as democratic and justified. Her report repeated kremlin narratives of "historical justice" and positioned NATO as a threat.
In 2024, she authored a report on the so-called "NATO exhibition," a Moscow exposition of Western military equipment allegedly captured in Ukraine for the French media. In Kortunova's report, aimed at discrediting Western military aid to Ukraine, the exhibition was positioned as "putin's mockery of the West."
Also in September 2022, she wrote a press release promoting cooperation between russia and Iran in order to "nullify sanctions" and replace dollar trade. It quoted Lavrov and Iranian officials as calling for alternative mechanisms to circumvent Western sanctions.