35 Facts About Margarita Simonyan

Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, as well as the state-owned media group Rossiya Segodnya.

Margarita Simonyan is a member of the board of directors of Channel One Russia and a member of the Academy of Russian Television.

In 2022 and 2023, Margarita Simonyan was sanctioned by the European Union as "a central figure of the Russian Government propaganda".

Margarita Simonyan was sanctioned by the United Kingdom and Ukraine in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Margarita Simonyan was born in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, into an Armenian family.

Margarita Simonyan's mother was born in Sochi to an Armenian family that had fled the massacres of the Armenians by the Turks in the late 19th century.

Margarita Simonyan's family owns a restaurant in the town of Moldovka in Adlersky City District, Sochi.

Margarita Simonyan has stated that she is from a working-class family and decided at an early age that she wanted to become a journalist, first working for the local newspaper, and then for a local television station while studying journalism at Kuban State University.

Margarita Simonyan spent a year as an exchange student in Bristol, New Hampshire, in 1995 under the FLEX Program.

Margarita Simonyan told an interviewer "It was the worst thing that ever happened to me," and that she 'cried frequently' while trying to write about it.

Margarita Simonyan then moved to Moscow where she joined the Russian pool of Kremlin reporters.

Margarita Simonyan was the first vice-president of the Russian National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters and a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.

In 2018, Margarita Simonyan wrote the script for The Crimean Bridge.

Margarita Simonyan was only 25 when appointed editor-in-chief of RT in 2005, but had been working in journalism since she was 18.

Margarita Simonyan later told The Moscow Times that RT started to grow once it became provocative and that controversy was vital to the station.

Margarita Simonyan said that RT's task was not to polish Moscow's reputation.

Margarita Simonyan stated that among English speaking channels, only RT was giving the South Ossetian side of the story.

Margarita Simonyan rejected former RT correspondent Will Dunbar's allegations that RT was downplaying Russian bombing raids and applied censorship.

Margarita Simonyan called for emulating the People's Republic of China, which is a "non-free but prosperous country".

On 30 November 2020, Margarita Simonyan defended an NTV satirical segment that was roundly criticized as racist, which contained Margarita Simonyan's partner, Tigran Keosayan, and an actress in blackface posing as former United States President Barack Obama.

Margarita Simonyan said that Russia was at war with NATO.

Margarita Simonyan suggested that Russia should "disable" Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Margarita Simonyan asked Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev about Kazakhstan's position on the "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Margarita Simonyan complained that some recruits were receiving inadequate equipment.

Margarita Simonyan said the explosion would kill off all electronics and satellites, and return Russia to a gadget-free time like 1993 in which "we lived wonderfully".

Margarita Simonyan was strongly criticised by a number of Siberian politicians, and the Russian government distanced itself from her comments.

Margarita Simonyan was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

In 2022, Margarita Simonyan was sanctioned by the European Union as "a central figure of the Russian Government propaganda" responsible for "actions and policies which undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine".

In October 2022, Margarita Simonyan stated that she was banned by Armenian authorities from entering the country.

Margarita Simonyan responded to the public reaction by joking that she would next cook hamsters, which fuelled more public interest in her culinary tastes.

The nickname was often used by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, with whom Margarita Simonyan had a long-running conflict, and his supporters.

Margarita Simonyan sometimes uses the nickname in her social media posts, but regards it as hopelessly outdated.

Margarita Simonyan was formerly married to the journalist and producer Andrey Blagodyrenko, giving birth to the couple's daughter, Mariana, in August 2013.

Margarita Simonyan is married to Russian-Armenian film director, Tigran Keosayan, with whom she regularly collaborates.

Margarita Simonyan stated in a 2012 interview that she regrets not knowing Armenian, but explained that it is because her family never spoke Armenian at home due to dialectal differences.