SIMONYAN Margarita Simonovna

СИМОНЬЯН Маргарита Сімоновна
СИМОНЬЯН Маргарита Симоновна
SIMONYAN Margarita Simonovna

She is one of the key figures in the kremlin's propaganda, directly fulfilling the putin regime's ideological task of shaping a public outlook that is convenient and favorable to the kremlin elite in terms of perception and whitewashing of russia's military (armed) aggression.
She actively idealizes putin's policies, has officially supported his candidacy for the presidential election since 2012, and has been his confidant since 2018. She was a member of the initiative group to nominate putin as a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. She is a member of the All-russian Public Movement "People's Front for russia", which was created at putin's initiative to monitor the implementation of his decrees/orders and to conduct campaign activities in the election process.
According to Simonyan, she has a state landline directly between special kremlin employees and the editors-in-chief of russian-controlled media to discuss confidential issues. She is close to Alexei Gromov, the first deputy head of the presidential administration, who is called "putin's media puppeteer." Gromov, who is on the US sanctions list for interfering in the US presidential election and participating in the russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, is one of the founders of RT, while Simonyan is called his protégé.
Simonyan publicly supports the annexation of Crimea and the russian invasion of Ukraine, actively spreading kremlin propaganda narratives. In her regular public speeches, Simonyan threatens to destroy Ukrainian cities, endorses missile strikes on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, and has proposed detonating a nuclear bomb over Siberia as a "nuclear ultimatum in the fight against the West." In December 2023, she stated that the inhabitants of western Ukraine "need to be finished off," and in November 2024, she said that, in her opinion, the desired outcome of russia's war against Ukraine is unconditional surrender and the termination of Ukraine's existence as it has been for the past 30 years.
In December 2024, after russia's use of the Oreshnik missile against Ukraine, she suggested that the new russian weapon be called "rozgami" (lashes), as lashes were traditionally used in russia to punish disobedience, emphasizing the symbolic meaning of this name for the weapon. At the same time, Simonyan said that "people in the West do not understand in any other way."
Together with her husband, TV presenter and propagandist Tigran Keosayan, she raises funds for the needs of the russian armed forces.
She has repeatedly visited the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to participate in propaganda events in support of the war. In particular, Simonyan, together with Keosayan, are the authors of the movie "Crimean Bridge. Made with Love", which was filmed in the temporarily occupied Crimea with the assistance of Arkady Rotenberg (under sanctions by all countries of the sanctions coalition). The film's budget amounted to 175 million rubles, and the cost of its marketing support was 125 million rubles. The box office receipts of 70 million rubles indicate that the film had a propaganda purpose rather than a commercial one.
In 2022, she was awarded the Order of Honor.