Margarita Simonyan is such an interesting person that even her enemies bow their heads respectfully before this strong, intelligent and very beautiful woman. And she, listening to spiteful critics and envious people, says: “Personally, I have no enemies, my Motherland has them.” And she means not only Armenia, but the whole former USSR, because for her the main thing is not nationality, but human qualities. Margarita Simonyan is one of the most prominent women in the international media; media source Forbes included her in the list of the most influential women in the world. How did a simple Armenian girl “grow up” to several high positions in Russian journalism at once? What interesting things do we know about the “iron lady of television”, who calls herself that and laughs infectiously at the same time?
Brief biography
- Full names: Simonyan, Margarita Simonovna (in the patronymic, the emphasis is on the second syllable);
- Place and date of birth: Krasnodar, USSR; 1980, April 6;
- Nationality: Armenian;
- Height, weight: 160 cm, about 60 kg;
- Marital status: officially single; consists of civil marriage with Keosayan Tigran;
- Children: son Keosayan Bagrat Tigranovich (born 2014), daughter Keosayan Maryana Tigranovna (born 2013);
- Occupation: journalist, writer, TV commentator, TV presenter, screenwriter, director, actress.
About Margarita Simonyan's childhood and youth
The biography of the Simonyan family, if viewed over several generations, covers the territory from the former Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) to the Crimean Peninsula. Margarita’s great-grandparents fled to Crimea in pre-revolutionary times to escape the Turkish genocide. Sadly, the new homeland prepared a painful blow for the family: the next generation of Simonyanov was repressed in 1944 and exiled to Sverdlovsk, despite the fact that the head of the family went through the entire Great Patriotic War. Our heroine’s father, Simon Sarkisovich, was born in Sverdlovsk; his parents decided to move from Sverdlovsk to Krasnodar after the war. In Krasnodar, Simon met his future wife, they got married, and had two daughters – Margarita and Alisa.
Oh, these streets from the times of the USSR, which bore the names of great writers! Well, why, if Pushkin Street is always central, with respectable “high-rise buildings”, and when Gogol or Chekhov is located - slums for the poor? It was on this Gogol street in Krasnodar that Rita spent her childhood: “Italian” courtyards with a large balcony-veranda for many apartments, in a common kitchen - each housewife had a small stove with her own gas cylinder. From the water supply there is only a drain hatch next to the kitchen, the toilet is a “cesspool” with vacuum cleaners coming once a month. And Rita’s mother carried water up the rickety stairs in buckets from the pump... Dad was involved in repairing electronic equipment, he was especially famous in the city as a refrigerator repairman, and mother sold flowers at the market.
Despite the fact that there was frankly no money in the family (how many thousands could a refrigerator technician or a flower seller earn in the USSR!), parents tried to pamper Rita and their younger sister Alisa: the girls always had elegant dresses and good toys. But the living conditions, no matter how hard you tried, left much to be desired, and Margarita already made an oath to herself: she would study, then work so that she would have a good apartment with gas, hot water, good furniture. When the eldest girl in the Simonyan family turned ten years old, her parents finally received separate housing in a new microdistrict of the city.
Already in kindergarten Rita learned to read fluently, and often she organized “fairy tale readings” in her group: the teacher seated the rest of the children in a circle, and Margarita read with the expression of a fairy tale. The girl did not go to school (her father insisted on this) with an in-depth study of English, because studying in an ordinary school would have been boring for her: at the age of seven she not only read fluently, but also knew the basics of mathematics. Rita's dad and mom proudly boasted to their neighbors that their daughter brought only "A's" in her diary; her Russian language teacher especially praised her (the school not only offered additional English classes, but was also Russian-speaking).
The year 1995 in the Land of the Soviets was the time when the “Iron Curtain” rose, which closed several generations born in the USSR from the rest of the world. The “Gorbachev Spring” also affected Soviet schools: exchanges of children’s delegations began between Soviet Union and the USA. Rita Simonyan was included in one of these delegations - she went to the States to study and live with an American family. Until now, Margarita maintains warm relations with that family from New Hampshire, and in total she stayed in the USA for almost two years and returned to Krasnodar for the final exams of her native school. All exams were passed with excellent marks, Margarita became the only “medalist” in the class.
Student life and first journalistic experience
Rita’s parents are purebred Armenians, so in their daughters’ passports they wrote “Armenian” in the “nationality” column. By the way, the journalist’s father and mother spoke different dialects native language, but for the eldest daughter Russian became her native language - she went to a Russian school, and in such schools other languages were taught “to the extent” Soviet time. But the girl, fluent in Russian and English, easily entered the Faculty of Journalism at Krasnodar University after school.
In her first year at university, Margarita tried her hand at poetry and published a collection of her own poems in a small local publishing house. The collection was instantly sold out, people started talking about the talented girl, and these conversations reached the management of the Krasnodar TV channel. The channel was looking for new, fresh ideas, and decided to interview the student poet. The story about Margarita Simonyan – the first appearance of the future media “star” on television – became the start of the young journalist’s entire future career. “Journalists” - because Rita took the opportunity and asked to take her for an internship, and now she is already a presenter and journalist for the Krasnodar television company.
The Krasnodar company was at that time the largest in the south of Russia, but whatever one may say, the channels were not wide, local broadcasting. And Margarita’s ambitions and energy are already “off scale”, and she is applying for a job at “ hot spot", specifically to Chechnya. A fragile nineteen-year-old girl is going to Chechnya for ten days - she didn’t even tell her parents about it, fearing their fright. Only after seeing their daughter on TV on the news did dad and mom learn that Rita was literally under bullets talking about the events in Chechnya. For a series of these reports, correspondent Simonyan received the award “For Professional Courage” and the Order of Friendship. Upon returning from Chechnya, the girl, without interruption from the university, enters the School of Television Excellence, where she studies under the guidance of Vladimir Pozner.
The path to the “top” of Russian and international journalism
The year 2000 for Margarita Simonyan was the post of editor-in-chief of the Krasnodar TV channel. But she still wanted more, and a year later the young woman moved to Rostov-on-Don to work there at the All-Union State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (as a simple correspondent, mind you). And again she rushes to the “hot spots”: this time it was Abkhazia, the audience especially remembered the reports from the Kodori Gorge, where the girl participated in filming clashes between militants and Russian army. The activity of the Rostov journalist was noticed “at the top”, and she was invited to work in Moscow, for the Vesti program.
Someone will say: “It’s just luck!”, but it’s probably not by chance that Vladimir Putin invited Margarita to join the group of journalists accompanying him during his presidential tour of the country in 2002. Two years later, in September 2004, she goes to Beslan: every half hour in emergency news, the girl appears on TV and tells the whole country how the process of freeing hostages in the town is progressing. She flatly refused the offer to cut out some moments from her reports (several times her voice broke and she began to cry): people should know the truth, it cannot be “smoothed over”! Later, answering the question whether young journalists should start a career in a “problem” area, Margarita categorically said: “Under no circumstances!” It’s so hard, so disgusting... The psyche can break!”
2005: RIA Novosti decided to create a new project called “Russia Today”. The founders of the project were categorically against appointing someone from the “old guard” of journalists as head. They wanted a person to come to this post with an “uncluttered” view, who had not seen old news, and was not accustomed to Soviet standards of conducting news broadcasts. Margarita Simonyan was appointed head of the television channel of the Russia Today project - with her uncompromising and at the same time “fresh” style of work, she was the best fit for the position.
The Russia Today project was initially made in English and was supposed to cover “the official Russian position in the light of various political and social situations in the world” - this is a fragment of the company’s statutory text. Of course, many venerable media workers applied for the position of editor-in-chief, and everyone was incredibly surprised when a twenty-five-year-old journalist was “placed” in the management chair. Yes, it was precisely a “powerful” appointment, but wasn’t Margarita, with her extensive work experience, her ability to “digest” a huge amount of information, her excellent knowledge of English, really worthy? “Russia Today” as a project began to quickly expand, Arabic and Spanish versions appeared, and again the editor-in-chief is Margarita Simonyan.
photo https://www.instagram.com/_m_simonyan_/
They didn’t write anything unpleasant, they didn’t “rinse” her name when she began to establish new order in the company with an “iron hand”! Allegedly, she fired everyone she disliked for ridiculous reasons. It’s pure lies: when Margarita came to the company, no one was fired; then many left, yes, but after the expiration of the first contract (each contract was personally endorsed by her, which is what it is). Not a single employee who left Russia Today upon expiration of the contract or being fired (there were some of these later) was disadvantaged in terms of character references or care payments. And the fact that she established iron discipline in the company (even to the point that employees were ordered not to visit social networks while working) - is that really a minus? “Russia Today” immediately became the “official mouthpiece” of the government, and in such an organization there is no place for freedom of morals and poor discipline.
Despite being busy almost 24/7 at Rossiya Segodnya, Margarita tried herself in other projects. On the REN-TV channel, under her leadership, in the spring of 2011, the analytical program “What’s happening?” was launched. The program lasted a little more than six months: too dangerous topics were raised in it, and both the presenter and the participants, witnesses of the “acute” events in the country, spoke too harshly in it. Together with the Georgian Tina Kandelaki, Simonyan opened another project on NTV in 2013 - the political “women’s” talk show “Iron Ladies”, which is where her nickname came from! And at the same time as closing “What’s going on?” (paradox: the program is closed, but they show trust!) She is invited to the Board of Directors of Channel One.
Margarita’s enemies call her “the third, “female” hand” of the Russian President. She is a member of the People's Headquarters of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin in 2012. From the Public Council for the Affairs of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, she quickly moves to the Public Council, but under the Russian Foreign Ministry - an incredibly high rise in a woman’s career! From 2005 to 2018, Simonyan was Putin’s most frequently invited correspondent, accompanying him on trips and during interviews. And when her name was made public as registered as a confidant of Vladimir Putin in the last elections, the discontent of her ill-wishers began to openly go off scale. Well, she really does look like the “third hand” of our president, but this hand is firm and correct.
Dissatisfaction with her uncompromisingness and rigidity resulted in the fact that in 2014, Margarita Simonyan was officially banned from entering the territory of Ukraine. Also, not everyone is happy with her activities as head of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, especially after the opening of the French branch in 2018. The international media regulator Ofcom, for example, never tires of blaming Russia Today and Margarita personally for “not objectively reflecting NATO’s position on conflict situations in the world” (quote from Ofcom’s publication). And she publicly objects with humor: “One would think that, for example, the BBC would at least once objectively reflect the Kremlin’s position on these issues...”
According to the latest data from the financial magazine Forbes, Margarita Simonyan is in fifty-second place in the hundred “Most Influential Women in the World.” In Russia, in the same ranking, it is in fifteenth place. In addition to the Order of Friendship, her list of awards includes personal gratitude from the President of the Russian Federation, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, and the Medal of Armenia Movses Khorenatsi. Now Margarita Simonyan, in addition to Rossiya Segodnya, is the editor-in-chief of this MIA’s “subsidiary” project, the Sputnik news agency.
Personal life
At the age of twelve, a determined girl who dreamed of a separate apartment and a good job told her mother that she would never get married! “Mom even choked on her favorite mint tea,” Margarita later recalled this scene. She probably thought so categorically because she “didn’t see absolutely happy families“, - again the words of the journalist. And here is another quote from her interview: “I was sure that a white veil forever turns a woman into a downtrodden creature, chained to the kitchen and patiently “digesting” her husband’s infidelities.” Until almost thirty, Margarita had no idea of getting married, much less having children.
In 2012, the “iron lady” of Russian television unexpectedly lifted the curtain that covered her personal life. It turned out that she had a personal life: “Common life, ficus and plans for the future,” and this “ficus” was her colleague, Andrei Blagodyrenko. General work, similar views (Andrey was also famous in the media for his uncompromising and toughness) should have pushed the couple towards marriage, but both were in no hurry to formalize the relationship.
And in the same 2012, when it became known about the relationship between Margarita and Andrey, a man burst into her life, “who turned everything upside down with the ficus trees.” This is how the woman later described the appearance of Tigran Keosayan in her life (words taken from an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper). The acquaintance took place on Facebook: someone, introducing himself as director Keosayan, wrote to Margarita that he admired her work on TV, and was especially struck by the reports from Beslan. “What if it’s a fake, you never know how many Pedrovs are in Brazil (paraphrasing words from a famous comedy)?” – Rita thought, but answered the fan.
The mysterious admirer turned out to be not fake, but real: correspondence on Facebook was followed by phone conversations, and a first date was set. “We had lunch, and it was so delicious that we wanted to have dinner. And then everything quickly turned into breakfast,” another quote from the interview. “Ficus” named Andrey Blagodyrenko was still relevant, Keosayan had a beautiful wife Alena Khmelnitskaya... “Tigran and I tried to end the relationship - we didn’t want to hurt our loved ones. They quarreled on purpose and broke up. The first time the separation lasted a day, the last – twenty minutes,” again Margarita’s words.
Rita and Tigran did not plan to immediately “overgrow” offspring, although both were far from young. But “despite all sorts of precautions” (according to the woman), she soon learned that she would be a mother. This is how she told about her feelings at that time: “I sobbed, as soon as I found out, for three months... I “sobbed” at the threat of miscarriage, the doctors insisted on hospitalization and hormonal treatment.” Having trusted God, having gone through a terrible period of toxicosis and several hospitalizations, Margarita gave birth to a daughter, Maryasha. A month of maternity leave, and the woman goes back to work, and after another five months - a new pregnancy! When Bagrat was born, the journalist did not sit at home for a day: “I took my son from the maternity hospital to his grandmother and went straight to work: I was just undergoing an audit by the Accounts Chamber.”
Now, judging by the pictures in in social networks and judging by the behavior of Rita and her common-law husband Keosayan, they are absolutely happy. They have not formalized their relationship, and this causes considerable surprise among friends. The couple explains that this is a normal phenomenon among Armenians: more than half of their parents’ peers, for example, live happily together without stamps in their passports. Children of Margarita and Tigran with early years They receive an excellent education; their parents invited teachers in art and foreign languages, music and yoga. Maryana is fond of dancing, Tigran is fond of Thai boxing.
Such a tough, “iron” person on TV, Margarita in life is a very well-mannered and “plastic” woman. She managed to make friends with ex-wife Tigran, Alena Khmelnitskaya. Women meet and organize holidays for children together. There is a photo of them together on the Internet, signed “High Relationships,” where Margarita and Alena stand hugging each other, like good friends. Tigran’s current wife says this about Alena: “She is phenomenal - kind, smart, and what a beauty! She’s happy (she has a new husband, Sasha), I’m happy, thank God we have nothing to share.”
Interesting facts about Margarita Simonyan
- She calls her daughter Maryasha “shrimp.” The nickname came during pregnancy, when there was a threat of miscarriage, but the child “miraculously stuck like a shrimp and survived,” as the doctors said.
- Margarita is categorically against her children studying abroad. “You can learn foreign languages here, but you can’t learn culture abroad,” are her words.
- An ethnic purebred Armenian, Rita Simonyan visited her historical homeland for the first time during the president’s trip to the countries of the former CIS in 2014.
- Margarita learned to write scripts from Tigran, and she’s great at it. They called their first joint painting “Sea, mountains, expanded clay.” Another of her works, where the journalist starred in one of the main roles, was the thriller “Actress”.
- Keosayan’s ex-wife Alena Khmelnitskaya also starred in this thriller. “The entire film crew watched us warily as we managed to maintain friendly relations,” Simonyan later said.
- And again about the thriller “Actress” - the plot of the film was dreamed by a woman in a nightmare: “I woke up in a cold sweat at midnight and realized that I had to write down the dream, otherwise I wouldn’t fall asleep.”
- Picture " Crimean Bridge, made with love” Rita and Tigran also filmed together, and again Margarita is the scriptwriter, and her husband is the director.
- Being the director of a large agency, earning very good money, Margarita almost did not spend money on herself, except for buying costumes for the broadcast. “Everything was scattered for mortgages, to help relatives,” she explained.
- The first expensive handbag was bought for her by... Tigran. She liked a bag from a famous brand, but it was prohibitively expensive in her opinion. Keosayan noticed just one glance at the window display while they were walking, and secretly bought it. “I was like a child, I laid her on the pillow next to me for several days,” Rita recalls with tenderness.
- The first of January in the Keosayan-Simonyan family is called “Khash” open doors" All the couple's friends know: they are in New Year's Eve they cook this famous “anti-hangover” dish, and you can come to them for khash without an invitation.
Why do all the leads from Simonyan lead to the USA?
The site kompromat.wiki publishes very interesting data.
For example, the resource focused on Margarita Simonyan because Russian society I wonder why the state gave such advances to an ordinary journalist?
So, let’s get acquainted with the biography of an ordinary journalist of Armenian origin, who captured the leading positions of the Russian state media field and a huge chunk of the Russian budget, Day.Az reports with reference to gradator.ru.
Simonyan Margarita Simonovna is a Russian journalist and media manager. Editor-in-Chief of the RT television channel since 2005, the international news agency Rossiya Segodnya since 2013, and the Sputnik news agency since 2014.
Simonyan Margarita Simonovna, born on April 6, 1980, native of Krasnodar.
Relatives. Sister: Simonyan Alisa Simonovna, born on August 7, 1981. She was involved in PR support for major federal projects, in particular the construction of the Crimean Bridge and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. By the way, Alice, like her sister Margot, also prefers a deep neckline.
Margarita Simonyan claims that she did not contribute to the development of her sister’s business through her channels in government. In her opinion, Alisa Simonyan is “simply one of the best PR people in Russia.”
Husband (civilian): Keosayan Tigran Edmondovich, born on January 4, 1966, film director, screenwriter and producer. Since 2012, Simonyan has been in a de facto marriage with Keosayan, who left the family and officially divorced his previous wife Alena Khmelnitskaya in 2014. Simonyan conducts business through Keosayan’s commercial structures, since he does not want to directly show government orders.
Keosayan himself received government money to create patriotic films. According to some reports, Simonyan contributed to this through her connections. The family also owns a restaurant in the Krasnaya Polyana area of Sochi.
Education
She studied at special school No. 36 in the city of Krasnodar.
In the tenth grade, to improve her English, she was sent on exchange to New Hampshire (USA) for a year as part of the Future Leaders Exchange program. During this trip, the future journalist, in her own words, became imbued with “some skepticism about democracy and a persistent hostility to American values.” Of course, Margot is lying, because on this trip she just came to the attention of the US Armenian lobby, which, in turn, is used by US intelligence services.
At the age of 19, she graduated from the Vladimir Pozner School of Television Excellence, who was also attracted to the US Armenian lobby. By the way, he recently showed up in Los Angeles to promote Armenian interests.
Then she graduated from the Kubansky Faculty of Journalism state university.
She also studied at the Internews television school of Manana Aslamazyan. As you know, this company is also American.
Labor activity
After graduating from university, she worked as a correspondent for the Krasnodar television and radio company.
In 2001, she was appointed leading editor of news programs at the Krasnodar TV and Radio Broadcasting Company, and then as her own correspondent for VGTRK in Rostov-on-Don.
In the fall of 2002, she became a special correspondent for Vesti.
In 2005, the first Russian TV channel was founded on English language"Russia Today", of which M. S. Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief. Subsequently, she also became the editor-in-chief of the Arabic-language ("Rusia al-Yaum") and Spanish-language ("RT Español") versions of "RT".
Since 2014, at the same time, he has been the editor-in-chief of the international news agency "Russia Today", as well as the editor-in-chief of the information agency "Sputnik", affiliated with the MIA "Russia Today".
Also in the 2010s, at various times she hosted the analytical program “What’s Going On?” on the REN TV channel and the political talk show "Iron Ladies" with another presenter of Armenian origin, Tina Kandelaki, who previously introduced herself as a Georgian, on the NTV channel.
Connections/Partners
Blagodyrenko Andrey Aleksandrovich, born July 13, 1966, head of the directorate of multimedia centers of the International Agency and Radio Sputnik. Blagodyrenko, like Simonyan, spent his childhood in Krasnodar and was closely connected with the Armenian diaspora in this city. He worked in Rostov-on-Don, where at some point Simonyan also ended up, then both moved to Moscow, where they became known as a couple. Blagodyrenko produced various television projects.
Despite the fact that Simonyan cheated on Blagodyrenko and then left for another man, they now maintain a relationship. Blagodyrenko was even assigned to the Sputnik International Agency, whose editor-in-chief is Simonyan.
Gromov Alexey Alekseevich, born May 31, 1960, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.
Gromov, since the 2000s, has been supervising funds mass media in the Kremlin. He worked closely with Simonyan from the moment the girl got into the so-called presidential pool of journalists. It was Gromov and the then adviser to the President of the Russian Federation Mikhail Lesin who came up with the idea of creating the Russia Today media holding. It was Gromov who decided to appoint Simonyan as head of RT. Over time, Simonyan worked closely with Lesin.
Lesin also turned out to be an American hireling, fled to the USA, where he ended his days under strange circumstances in 2015, and Gromov still holds Russia Today under special control and patronizes Simonyan. It is alleged that Gromov and Simonyan have common business interests.
Dobrodeev Oleg Borisovich, born October 28, 1959, General Director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK). There are rumors that Simonyan may sit down for Dobrodeev and, God forbid, become the head of VGTRK herself.
Kiselev Dmitry Konstantinovich, born on April 26, 1954, general director of the Russian international news agency "Russia Today", deputy general director VGTRK. Kiselev, as the head of MIA Rossiya Segodnya, appointed Simonyan as editor-in-chief of the agency, but in fact he is only a “wedding general.”
To information
Margarita Simonovna Simonyan was born in Krasnodar, into an Armenian family of a refrigerator repairman and a flower seller at the market. But the Simonyan family was simple only at first glance. In reality, it enjoyed the support of the influential Armenian diaspora in Krasnodar. In addition, it was rumored that among Margot’s distant relatives was Eduard Shevardnadze himself. The fact that the Simonyan family was not so simple was evidenced by the fact that during her school years the girl was sent under the Future Leaders Exchange program to the American New Hampshire. There is also information that Father Simonyan had influence in criminal circles, from Russia to America.
Subsequently, Margarita will claim that in the United States she became imbued with “some skepticism about democracy and a persistent hostility to American values.” However, at that time, having returned to Russia, she went to learn the basics of journalism precisely to the pro-Western representative of this profession, Vladimir Pozner, who opened his School of Television Excellence, and then studied at the Internews television school of the liberal journalist Manana Aslamazyan. And besides, Margarita openly expressed a desire to become her own correspondent in Moscow for some Western channel.
Is it really just a coincidence?
If you think about it, Simonyan is a cunningly disguised American fosterling, and the resources she heads are in fact devaluing the image of Russia in the world, she also destroyed the leading Russian agency RIA Novosti, replacing it with the scandalous soap Sputnik.
Simonyan received her higher education at Kuban State University, but studied there in absentia, since already in her first year she was hired as a correspondent for the Krasnodar television and radio company. The young girl was clearly being “sculpted” into a career.
The still completely inexperienced student was sent as a war correspondent to Chechnya, where she made several reports, after which she immediately received the Kuban Union of Journalists award “For Professional Courage.”
A few months later, the journalist was also awarded the prize of the second All-Russian competition of regional television and radio companies, and at the Krasnodar TV and Radio Broadcasting Company she was promoted to the leading editor of information programs. However, she worked in her new position for no more than six months, since she moved from regional television to the federal VGTRK, as a correspondent in Rostov-on-Don.
Already in 2002, Margarita was invited to Moscow as a special correspondent for Vesti. Earlier, Kuban television producer Andrei Blagodyrenko moved to the capital and headed the production company Profilm in the Mother See. It is difficult to say whether he contributed to the journalist’s move, but they soon began to live together. At the same time, a girl from Krasnodar who had not yet graduated from university was immediately assigned to the so-called presidential pool and began to cover almost all of Vladimir Putin’s trips.
In 2004, Simonyan was entrusted with conducting live reporting from Beslan, where Chechen terrorists seized a school with children in the city center. It was Margarita Simonovna, in one of her live broadcasts, who significantly underestimated the number of hostages to 354 people, while exact figure there were 1128 of them. In addition, she stated that “terrorists do not make demands,” while their main point was “the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya.”
The false information outraged local residents whose relatives ended up in the seized school. The terrorists also saw this broadcast, after which they significantly tightened the conditions for the residents of Beslan they captured.
Literally six months later, Margarita Simonovna was awarded the then Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov with the medal “For Strengthening the Military Commonwealth.”
In 2005, Gromov and Lesin, who at that time became an adviser to the President, but continued to supervise the Russian media, decided to create a TV channel that would shape public opinion among Western audiences “in the interests of Russia.” The TV channel was named "Russia Today", and twenty-five-year-old Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief of such a serious project. The journalistic community expressed its bewilderment at such an appointment and there was something to be surprised about.
The new TV channel had a large budget by Russian standards and has since reached broadcasting coverage in more than 100 countries and had 22 bureaus in 19 countries and regions, with a presence in Washington, New York, London, Berlin, Gaza, Cairo, Baghdad and other large cities of the world. And all this was supposed to be run by yesterday’s graduate of the correspondence department of the journalism department of Kuban State University. Many of Margarita’s colleagues expressed their dissatisfaction when the editor-in-chief of Russia Today, favored by the authorities, was presented with state awards.
It is obvious that in her career advancement, Margarita Simonovna jumped at least several flights of stairs. Therefore, already being the editor-in-chief of a large television channel, she herself wanted to try herself as a TV presenter of a political talk show. But she didn’t want to work for a foreign public, so she knocked on the door of her Russian colleagues. At first she was accepted on REN TV, where he hosted the program “What’s Going On?”, but due to low popularity it was closed after six months. Television critics said that the program was made “in the spirit of a sample of Soviet propaganda.”
Then Simonyan tried herself on the radio as the host of the weekly column “Point of View” on the Kommersant FM frequency, but they broke up with her literally after a few issues. Then there was NTV and the joint program “Iron Ladies” with Tina Kandelaki, which also lasted no more than six months. TV critics compared the presenters to “kitchen gossips who are trying to talk about big politics.”
In December 2013, the International News Agency “Russia Today” was created on the basis of RIA Novosti, headed by journalist Dmitry Kiselev. That same month just before New Year holidays Kiselev invited Margarita Simonovna to become the editor-in-chief of the new agency. And in November 2014, Simonyan also headed the editorial board of the Sputnik news agency, affiliated with the Rossiya Segodnya news agency.
In 2015, one of Simonyan’s patrons, Mikhail Lesin, died in the United States. Various sources claimed that the former press minister was either beaten to death or killed with a baseball bat. The leaks allegedly came from the FBI. Lesin was found dead at a hotel in downtown Washington. In this hotel, he was supposed to have a meeting with representatives of the US Department of Justice, to whom he was supposed to tell about how the “propaganda machine” of “Russia Today” works. Political scientist Gleb Pavlovsky even called the murder a staged act and suggested that Lesin was quietly working for the US intelligence services. After the death of her previous curator, Margarita Simonovna, without thinking twice, published an article entitled “Mikhail Lesin. Afterword,” from which it became clear that over all these years she had turned into a very close friend of the late politician, and how he played backgammon with her Krasnodar Armenian grandmother.
It is not known whether Lesin really had to “leak” information to the American intelligence services about Russian propaganda and whether he managed to tell something about “Russian Today”, however, soon the US authorities launched a real fight against the TV channel.
In 2017, it became known that the FBI began investigating the activities of the RT television channel and the Sputnik news agency. In the hands of the bureau employees was a hard drive containing internal documents and correspondence from Sputnik employees, which was given to them by one of the agency’s former reporters, Andrew Feinberg.
And already in the fall of the same year, the US Department of Justice demanded that RT America register as a “foreign agent.” This became a fairly large legislative precedent for the United States, since before this the media in this country had not received such requirements. Following Russia Today and Sputnik, other foreign TV channels like Al-Jazeera could receive a similar status. As a result, on November 10, 2017, the US Department of Justice officially added the company T&R Productions LLC, which served the RT America television channel, to the list of foreign agents.
At the same time, to say that Simonyan’s TV channel actually somehow influenced the political sentiments of US citizens was a great exaggeration. Of course, the potential audience of RT America by 2016 could be up to 85 million people. But in fact, this indicator only indicated the number of people who had this channel included in their cable TV package. In fact, RT America's daily audience was about 30 thousand people.
From time to time, the channel's audience expanded significantly due to major news events related to Russia. One of these events occurred in the fall of 2018. Then everyone was discussing the two Russian citizens, appeared on recordings of street cameras in the British city of Salisbury, precisely on those days and near the places where former GRU officer defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned. After these videos were released to the media, Russian authorities announced that the individuals present in them had been identified as civilians: Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
Margarita Simonovna tried with all her might to prove herself in the role of a tenacious and insightful investigator. However, all the participants in this impromptu interrogation looked more than ridiculous. The presenter clearly did not press the interviewees in those places where additional leading questions suggested themselves. But she showed genuine interest in the sexual orientation of Petrov and Bashirov, lowering the interview bar to a talk show for housewives. The “interrogated” looked completely faded, they were confused in their testimony, and if a more professional journalist had asked them questions, it’s unknown where these answers would have led them. As a result, the interview turned out to be in the comedy genre and was quickly disassembled into quotes and “memes.”
Probably, the same Alexey Gromov, who by that time had become the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, made sure that the meeting took place on RT. At least, Alexey Alekseevich did not forget his protégé all these years. It was she and her common-law husband Keosayan who were asked to make a film for the Sochi Olympics “Sea. Mountains. Expanded clay.” And later the same couple took on the film “Crimean Bridge. Made with Love.”
But it turned out to be a total waste and a laughing stock.
Some claimed that funds for the film were allocated by the Ministry of Culture, while others said that the project was personally paid for by Arkady Rotenberg, who was awarded the contract for the construction of the bridge. As a result, it turned out that at least 100 million rubles were received without competition from the Cinema Fund. Margarita Simonovna herself acted as the screenwriter of the film, and Keosayan as the director.
The film was shot at the studio of Keosayan's brother David, and the leading roles were his niece Laura Keosayan and his first wife Alena Khmelnitskaya. It should be said that the film, for obvious reasons, failed at the box office, never breaking even, and received terrible press from independent film critics.
But the film industry was not the only business that connected Simonyan and her relatives with a high-ranking official. In particular her younger sister Alisa could also be indebted to Gromov.
Registered as an individual entrepreneur, she received orders for PR of the most important government projects - the Olympics in Sochi, the World Cup and the construction of the Crimean Bridge. She also carried out orders for the Skolkovo Foundation, and worked with partners of Alexei Gromov Jr., including Oleg Deripaska.
Often Alisa Simonyan worked not only as an individual entrepreneur.
So, for PR of the Crimean Bridge, she got a job in Arkady Rotenberg’s company “Stroygazmontazh” and, as his employee, oversaw the work of the Crimean Bridge information center. True, this center was established by the Prime agency and the Eurasian Communication Center, which were structures of Russia Today. In that information center worked and younger son Gromova Danila.
Margarita Simonovna herself was engaged in commercial activities through an individual entrepreneur. According to her own statements, it was she who started this business, and then attracted her sister as an employee, and only later did she “separate.”
Sometimes Simonyan had to involve her husband in running the business. Some clients were not satisfied with the status of an individual entrepreneur, and then Margarita Simonovna entered into contracts through the Coliseum company, whose owner was Keosayan.
In 2019, a large interview with Simonyan was published. It is curious that the TV producer poured out his soul on Telegram, which was blocked by Roskomnadzor, and specifically on the Nezygar channel. The curator of this information platform, and especially “Nezygar” in the Kremlin, is considered to be the same Alexey Gromov. It was rumored that Margarita Simonovna decided to have a frank conversation due to the fact that a new big assignment had been prepared for her. In particular, there were rumors that the journalist decided to deceive the head of Russian television, Oleg Dobrodeev. And in this case, information support would really not hurt her. After all, despite her multiple awards and fast career, ordinary viewers were not very fond of Margarita Simonovna’s producing talent.
For many, Simonyan simply caused irritation. Often Chief Editor TV channel "Russia Today" collected a whole scattering of critical comments under its posts on social networks. She once talked about her awkward feelings when she had to call an ambulance. In particular, the journalists are uncomfortable in front of the medical staff for the “oak staircase”, “oak parquet”, “English wallpaper and vintage Italian chandelier” in “ good home“in a “nice village near Moscow.” “It’s as if I stole it all,” Margarita Simonovna exclaimed. The phrase “as if I stole it all” instantly spread among the people. “They stole it,” was the gentlest answer to the editor-in-chief of RT.
The “prodigy” of domestic journalism, Margarita Simonyan, managed to head the Russia Today media holding at the age of twenty-five. At the same time, Margarita Simonovna’s close relatives are now also showing considerable abilities, receiving contracts from the state for PR support for the country’s largest events and making films with money from the Cinema Fund. True, the average TV viewer has no way of understanding why the state gave such advances to an ordinary journalist.
Margarita Simonyan is a native of Krasnodar. Born into the simplest family, she was always interested in everything around her. From an early age I followed all the news and could learn a lot from memory quite quickly. The girl was smart and talented. Despite the poverty of the family, she tried to participate in various Olympiads. While still a schoolgirl, she already dreamed of becoming a journalist. And get out of poverty. Successfully enters higher education educational institution and the School of Television Arts. She reported in hot spots. Has awards for courage. The biography of the little girl is not as eventful as the life of the older Margarita. Margarita Simonyan’s husband, with whom the girl lives now, is her father. He also has children from his first wife.
Margarita Simonyan's husband – photo
Margarita Simonyan gave an interview only once, where her personal life was touched upon very little. Then Simonyan was in love and lived with a journalist. Margarita's first civil marriage lasted several years, but she was in no hurry to officially legitimize her relationship with her common-law husband, preferring to live more freely. They had no children together. Margarita was absorbed in her career. Simonyan became not only a famous journalist who was a participant in the raid in Dagestan, but also a TV presenter.
No one understood how the couple separated. But everyone noticed how Simonyan began to appear in the company of actor Tigran Keosayan. Then the man was doing restaurant business, in which Margarita helped him. He was married at the time. And when Margarita gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Maryana, there was talk that the father was a certain director who was 48 years old. A year later, the journalist becomes a mother for the second time. She had a son, Bagrat.
But it turned out that Tigran had not lived with his wife since 2013. He was already in love with Simonyan. It was in that year that Margarita's daughter was born. After the birth of the journalist’s second child, Tigran divorces his wife and begins to live with her. It turns out that Margarita Simonyan simply took her husband away from the family. However, Tigran is not going to leave his two children from his first marriage. Simonyan's husband believes that children should feel the love of both parents. Margarita, being at that time the editor of one of the TV channels, meets Tigran’s ex-wife at her son’s birthday party. They have become friends and believe that this will be good for the well-being of the children. Margarita Simonyan and her husband live together to this day.
After the birth of children, Margarita became very busy. She had to break apart. I had to be a journalist and a reporter and a good mother and wife. There was no time to fulfill my dream. Tigran, having learned that his wife had long wanted to have the skills of a writer, decided to help her with this. Her husband taught her to write scripts. Margarita turned out to have a natural gift for this. And they began filming series based on Simonyan’s scripts. The very first series created a sensation and brought the first channel an extremely high rating. What Konstantin Ernst himself decided to tell the couple first about.
Margarita always amazed those around her with her mental abilities. It was not surprising that she graduated from school with a gold medal. While I was studying to become a journalist, I wrote my first collection of poems. As a result, I ended up on a local TV channel. But this was not enough for her. For a long time Conducted reports from hot spots. And she was happy. Margarita Simonyan's life with her husband Tigran changed a lot in her attitude towards the world around her.
If earlier she thought that becoming a wife meant doing the same thing every day, now she knows that you can be successful, cheerful and quite lucky. Now Margarita and her husband are raising children, doing what they love and telling bedtime stories of their own composition.
Perhaps interesting: Husband of Ekaterina Andreeva.
Tigran Keosayan and Alena Khmelnitskaya were married for more than twenty years. Their couple seemed ideal to many, which is why the divorce shocked fans so much. Soon the director remarried. This time his chosen one was journalist Margarita Simonyan.
Now Tigran and Margarita are raising two children. The director tries to maintain good relations with his ex-wife.
“I believe that a man should always be responsible for the woman with whom he lived for 20 years. She gave birth to two children for me, and I must make sure that Alena has everything she needs. In the end, it’s not her fault that I fell in love with someone else,” Keosayan himself noted.
Margarita supports her husband's decision. She was able to find it herself mutual language with Alena. According to Simonyan, she feels comfortable communicating with Khmelnitskaya, because they live in a completely different worlds. Only with Keosayan’s ex-wife can a journalist forget about work and talk about pleasant feminine little things, discuss her favorite type of wine or problems in raising children.
Simonyan recalled that even after the divorce, her husband often visited his ex-lover and helped her in everything.
“I was already pregnant, and Tigran went to Alena every day to prepare breakfast for his youngest daughter. He didn't want the children to need attention or feel abandoned. Tigran stopped doing this only after Alena had new lover. We all communicate well. For example, we plan to celebrate the first of January together. Let's gather all our acquaintances and friends. Alena will come with her lover, Tigran’s children will definitely be there,” said Margarita.
Fans support Keosayan and Khmelnitskaya in their desire to maintain friendly relations. The director's children from both marriages communicate well with each other.
By the way, Alena herself has repeatedly talked about her relationship with ex-husband. According to the woman, meetings with him do not give her great pleasure. However, she understands that they need to communicate regularly for the well-being of their daughters.
The best confirmation good relations Tigran and Alena will become the series “Actress”. Khmelnitskaya will play one of the main roles in it, and Keosayan will act as director. By the way, the script for the film was written by Margarita Simonyan.
At 32 she became a journalist for the presidential pool, and at 35 she became editor-in-chief of the Russia Today channel. Today she is not just a multimedia person, but also the author of literary collections and a book about the 90s - “To Moscow”, and published excerpts from the work “Train”, along with culinary recipes, in the periodical “Russian Pioneer”.
Biography
Margarita Simonovna was born into the family of a refrigerator repairman and a flower saleswoman in Krasnodar on April 6, 1980. Until the age of 10, the girl, her sister and parents lived in difficult conditions - the Soviet period of unemployment and empty shelves, and there were absolutely no amenities in the house. When she was ten, the family received new housing.
The girl quickly mastered literacy and, even in kindergarten, gathered an audience of same-year-olds around her - reading fairy tales. Margarita was sent to school No. 36 (with in-depth study foreign languages). The bright student brought home only straight A's. At the age of 15, she goes to New Hampshire, where she studies at an American school and lives in a friendly family; the girl will remember her with kindness.
The desire to become a journalist brings the graduate to the Kuban State University. At the same time, she is honing her television skills with Vladimir Pozner himself (an iconic media personality, he was the host of teleconferences between the USA and the USSR, and hosted a program about the Soviet Union in the States).
Margarita began her working career at the age of 19. The Krasnodar channel is filming a story about her as a promising young writer; during the break, the girl mentioned her dream of working on TV.
From 1999 to 2000, Margarita interned and immediately decided to try her hand as a “war correspondent.” Then in an interview he will advise young journalists not to start with such painful topics. For the girl, they became a school of life that significantly influenced her worldview. In 2000, she was awarded a prize for professionalism and courage. During the same period, she received a responsible position - editor of the Krasnodar television and radio company. Margarita Simonyan was immediately offered work on other channels - VGTRK (as a correspondent), RTR. Since 2002, the talented and purposeful journalist began to be part of the permanent circle of press representatives who cover Kremlin events (representative of the presidential pool).
In 2004, the journalist managed to make a report about the tragedy in Beslan.
In 2005, the Russia Today television channel began broadcasting, which reflects the mood and opinions of politicians and the public regarding world events. Main actor- Russia. The concept of the channel became an unspoken response to the Voice of America program, popular during the USSR period, which was the “microphone” of the United States for the residents of the Union as well. Margarita Simonyan became the first editor-in-chief of the television company, and a little later she took the same position regarding the Arabic-language and Spanish-language broadcasting of Rossiya Segodnya.
In 2010, Simonyan received an award from the hands of the President of Armenia for her professionalism and contribution to the development of journalism.
In 2011-2013, Simonyan began to be recognized by more and more television viewers - she hosts the program “What’s Going On?” and "The Iron Lady". At the same time, Margarita is on the board of directors of the most popular and largest representative Media – Channel One.
Since 2013, the television celebrity has been the head of Russia Today and the editor-in-chief of MIA Rossiya Segodnya.
Her literary activities did not remain in the shadows. In 2010, the book “To Moscow” finally saw the light of day. This is a story about a whole generation, to which Margarita Simonyan herself belongs. The plot revolves around a girl and three friends living in a hostel. The maturation of young people and their views is shown. There was also a love story (for example, between the attractive student Nora and her married adult lover). This modern prose shows that one feeling remains unchanged and always correct, no matter how banal it may sound, but it is relevant - love for the Fatherland.
In the story "Train" readers will find interesting descriptions portraits of the country's inhabitants, landscapes, and once again take a different look at the familiar world of things.
In 2018, Margairita Simonyan became Vladimir Putin's confidant in the presidential elections.
Personal life
Despite being so busy, the young woman manages to devote time to her family. In the early 2000s, she was in a relationship with a colleague, Andrei Blagodyrenko. In 2013, while working until the end, the journalist became the mother of a girl, Maryana. After opening his own restaurant in Sochi, the head of Russia Today began to be seen in the company of the director, Alena Khmelnitskaya’s former husband, Tigran Keosayan. In 2014, they had a son in a civil marriage. Margarita Simonyan and her actual husband named him Bagrat.
