Shocking facts from the biography of Margarita Simonyan - an investigation of the Russian media. Simonyan Margarita Simonovna: biography, personal life and interesting facts Russia Today Margarita Simonyan biography

The news that the Khmelnitsky-Keosayan star couple broke up appeared thanks to the famous journalist Bozena Rynskaya. It was she who first posted a photo on the Internet showing Tigran Keosayan, his new wife and their children. The public was shocked by the news, because until recently Alena and Tigran looked quite happy together. Khmelnitskaya gave her husband a second daughter, was his muse and always appeared together at all social events. What happened in the star family? Why did they suddenly separate after 21 years of marriage?

Read also:

Tigran Keosayan and Alena Khmelnitskaya: divorce, ...

How did the novel begin?

Rumor has it that the star marriage began to crack back in 2011, when Tigran began to appear alone in the light more often. Many then did not give it of great importance and decided that the wife does a lot of work with youngest daughter. But already in 2012, Tigran began to appear with the famous host Margarita Simonyan. In an interview of the same year, Margarita announced that she was opening the Zharko! restaurant in Sochi. As it turned out, later it was their joint project with Keosayan. It was later.

And first there was a post on Facebook. Once Margo received a message from Tigran, in which he admitted that he had been watching her for a long time, since the time of reporting from Beslan, and sympathized with her. He was outraged by the persecution that the girl was allegedly subjected to. The journalist herself did not believe it, she thought it was a fake. Why would the famous director suddenly become interested in her fate. She saw him only on TV and even somehow appreciated the humor when he participated in a cooking show. BUT! For some reason she replied! Correspondence began, then long phone conversations began. And then lunches and dinners in restaurants. Gradually began to grow common themes, interests, projects.

Tigran Keosayan, his new wife, and Alena Khmelnitskaya

Tigran taught the girl to write scripts. Her longtime dream was to become a writer, but there was not enough time. Margaret's talent woke up. Together they began to shoot serials based on her scripts. Comedy “Sea. Mountains. Expanded clay.”, filmed by Tigran Keosayan and his new wife, was broadcast on the first channel with such success that Konstantin Ernst himself called and announced a high rating.

Once both realized that life without each other is no longer possible. There was an urgent need to see each other every day, correspond every minute, hold hands. Margarita, with a smile on her face, admits that all the most important things in life go to her unexpectedly literally fall from the sky.

Tigran Keosayan and Margarita Simonyan

Biography of Margarita Simonyan

Unlike the childhood of her lover, Margot's childhood was not so rosy. She was born in Krasnodar. In the 80s, it was not a well-groomed, luxurious metropolis, but an abandoned province with the ruins of houses right in the center. Her family had a small house in the Armenian “ghetto”, with walls that never dried out, an outdoor toilet for five families, and neighbors who were drug addicts. According to the journalist, although her parents are full-blooded Armenians, the family is absolutely Russian. Dad was born and raised in Sverdlovsk, mom in Sochi. They never lived in Armenia. Numerous relatives live in Adler.

Parents new wife Tigran Keosayan received higher education in Krasnodar. But it didn't work for them. Despite a red diploma from the Krasnodar Polytechnic Institute, my father was forced to repair refrigerators, and my mother, an intelligent and fragile woman, was engaged in odd jobs. She knitted hats, sold persimmons, tried to “shuttle”. With all this, my mother managed to take Rita and her younger sister Alice to all kinds of circles, to a special school of English and to music and sports classes.

Having brilliantly passed the entrance exams to the best school in Krasnodar, Margo determined her future. At that time, there was already an exchange program for schoolchildren, and young Margarita was sure that she would go to America to finish her studies. And so it happened. In 1995, the Americans chose the 5 most promising guys, and she was among them. In the States, Margo was a straight A student and had great opportunities to stay there. She was expected to study at a good university, a well-paid job.

But at one fine moment, the girl realized that she could only live where she grew up, that she would never be happy in a foreign country.

She graduated from school already at home with a gold medal. Then she entered the Kuban University as a journalist. In 1999, she published her first collection of poems, thanks to which she got a job as a correspondent for the local television and radio channel Krasnodar. But this was not enough for an ambitious and ambitious girl.

Energy was in full swing, I wanted to conquer the peaks. Not knowing how to get into the big federal media, the nineteen-year-old girl came up with only one way - she went to war in Chechnya. Of course, without telling your parents anything. The calculation for amazing reports from the hot spot turned out to be correct, it was noticed. Margarita was awarded the journalistic award "For professional courage", the Russian Order of Friendship.

Deciding to continue her career as a military television journalist, she covered the clashes of militants in Abkhazia. In September 2004 she went to Beslan. This tragedy greatly influenced the worldview of the journalist. A year later, the Russia Today channel was created, of course, Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief. Further, the career of an international news star was on the rise.

And in 2013, Margarita was appointed editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya MIA, where she has been working to this day.

Joint life with Tigran Keosayan

Before the appearance of Tigran in her life, Margot was not serious about close relationships. It is known that at the time of her acquaintance with the famous director, she lived in a civil marriage with journalist Andrei Blagodyrenko. The fact is that while living in her “ghetto”, the girl did not see happy families there. A married woman seemed to her an unfortunate downtrodden creature, whose task is to do daily housework.

Margarita with Andrey Blagodyrenko

She never intended to marry, which made her parents very upset. After all, they have been waiting for grandchildren for a long time. Even now, Tigran Keosayan and his new wife, although they have two children, live in a civil marriage.

When the couple realized they were having feelings, they decided to break up because they didn't want to hurt anyone. We broke up for one day - we couldn't stand it anymore. As a result, Keosayan moved to Rita in a small but cozy house, located 63 km from Moscow. Until Alena Khmelnitskaya had a man, her ex-husband visited them in Barvikha every morning to chat with their daughters over morning tea.

Oddly enough, they are on friendly and respectful terms with Alena. Khmelnytsky, as wise woman, encouraged the continuation of the relationship of daughters with their father, because they are not to blame for anything. Moreover, Alena found the courage to invite Tigran Keosayan and his new wife with their children to a family celebration. They got to know each other better and, as usual with this trio, a joint project has matured. The film "Actress" was shot according to the script of Rita, in which ex-wife played leading role.

Now the Keosayan-Simonyan couple are loving, but strict and demanding parents. Especially the young dad. He talks to his son and daughter as adults. But he is also not averse to fooling around, he loves to tell them all sorts of fables of his own composition, to sing funny songs.

We hope that Tigran Keosayan and his new wife will be happy for a long time, for life ...

"Iron Lady" of journalism, writer, one of the most influential women in Russia, happy mother and wife, Margarita Simonovna Simonyan, achieved brilliant success thanks to her sharp mind and character, which uniquely combines masculine hardness and feminine insight.

Childhood

Margarita was born on April 6, 1980 in Krasnodar. The family lived in a small house that they shared with several neighbors. Despite the fact that both Simon and Zinaida Simonyan, both full-blooded Armenians, had higher education, in the troubled times of the collapse of the Soviet Union, they could not find application for their knowledge. Simon was engaged in the repair of household appliances, and Zinaida was an entrepreneur.

The family did not live well, but the parents sought to give the best education to their daughters - Margarita and her younger sister Alice, raising them in the best traditions of both the Russian and Armenian peoples. From a very early age, Margarita was drawn to knowledge and even before entering school she already knew how to read and write. At the school with in-depth knowledge of English, the girl was one of the best students, in the 9th grade she got a chance to improve her English in the USA by getting into the school exchange program.

She lived in New Hampshire for several years, and when the time of study came to an end, Margarita made the first serious decision in her life that determined her fate. The girl refused to continue her education at an American university and returned to Russia.

Margarita Simonyan at Pioneer Readings

Admission to the Kuban University was easy for her - she was a gold medalist. Having become a student of the faculty of journalism, the girl devoted all her time to her studies and her favorite hobby - literature. Having been educated in the Kuban, she studied at the Moscow School of Television Excellence, after which she returned to her native land.

"Iron Lady" of Russian journalism

In the early 2000s, Margarita got a job on a Krasnodar news channel. At first, the girl was a trainee, but then she became a war correspondent. Risking her life, she covered events in Chechnya and won the "For Professional Courage" award. After a short work at the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Rostov-on-Don, Margarita became a correspondent for the Vesti program.

In 2004, Margarita reported live from Beslan, telling the whole country the truth about the seizure of the school by terrorists.

Margarita Simonyan in Beslan

In 2005, Russia Today was created, an international information channel, the purpose of which was to highlight Russia's position in relation to the policies of other states. The creation of RT was dictated by the time and the need to openly and truthfully state the political decisions made and Russia's views on issues that other international media preferred to hush up.

The creation of the channel was led by Mikhail Lesin, who previously held the post of Minister of Press, as well as Alexey Gromov, who at that time was the president's press secretary. The appointment of Margarita to the post of editor of the channel was perceived ambiguously due to her rather young age. It was due primarily to her exceptional knowledge of the English language, as well as the huge potential and talent that she was able to show in a short time.

Having headed RT, Margarita first oversaw the English version of the channel, but later became the editor-in-chief of the Spanish and Arabic versions. Under the leadership of Simonyan, the young RT already in 2008 surpassed the venerable Deutshe Welle, France 24 and Euronews in popularity. Margarita herself called the reason for such success a “fresh” look at world politics and patriotism, which she considers the main advantage of a Russian.

In 2010, Margarita entered the personnel reserve of President Vladimir Putin. At the end of 2012, Dmitry Kiselyov, director of the Rossiya Segodnya news agency, appointed Margarita Simonovna editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency. Simonyan managed to successfully combine the leadership of the RT and Russia Today TV channels.

Since 2014, a woman has also headed the Sputnik news agency, as well as RT, which is focused on a foreign audience. Sputnik websites, services and radio stations are available in all languages ​​of the world. Russian word should be heard in all corners the globe, says Simonyan, the main female face of Russian journalism.

Other achievements

In 2012, Simonyan was the author and host of the popular analytical program "What's going on", and was co-host of Tina Kandelaki in the show program "Iron Ladies".

Margarita's childhood dream is literary activity. From a young age, she wrote stories, and at the age of 18 she published her works of poetry. The novel "To Moscow", which tells about simple and understandable truths for every person, such as love, dreams, overcoming difficulties, published in 2010, became popular in Russia and other countries.

It was according to the scenario of Margarita that some popular TV series were filmed, such as “Actress” and “Sea. Mountains. Expanded clay", the main roles in which were played by Sergey Gazarov, Larisa Guzeeva, Svetlana Ivanova, Alena Khmelnitskaya, and also Sergey Nikonenko.

Personal life of Margarita Simonyan

With the beginning of her career in journalism, Margarita had to work hard and she had no time to arrange a woman's fate. However, it is known that before the official marriage with the director and showman Tigran Keosayan, she had an open relationship with her colleague Andrei Blagodyrenko.

In 2012, Tigran, who was married to actress Alena Khmelnitskaya, himself expressed a desire to meet Margarita and sent her a message on the Facebook social network. Relations quickly grew into friendship, and then into something more. Soon the director moved with his new lover to her house near Volokolamsk.

In 2013, the couple had a daughter, Maryana, and a year later, a son, Bagrat. The journalist's children have a schedule, like hers, scheduled by the minute: sports, languages, dances, creative circles. By the age of five, Mariana could speak five languages.

In October 2019, the couple became parents for the third time. On the 19th, a girl 57 cm tall and weighing 3050 g was born, who received unusual name Maro. Margarita is friends with Tigran's ex-wife, according to her, they have nothing to share. Moreover, Alena Khmelnitskaya is happy with entrepreneur Alexander Sinyushin, with whom she married in 2018.

Margarita Simonyan now

The Russian journalism star supports President Vladimir Putin and was one of his confidants in the 2018 presidential election.

Actively defending Russia's policy on international arena, Simonyan stands for freedom of speech and for the reliability of information. Margarita Simonovna is making every effort to maintain a positive image of Russia, thanks to her efforts, the whole world learned the truth from the father of the Syrian boy, who was put forward as the main evidence of Russian aggression. Margarita is a frequent guest of political shows and popular analytical programs, even ardent oppositionists listen to her opinion.

However, she also has failures, as in the case of interviews with Petrov and Bashirov, suspected of poisoning the Skripals. After a conversation on the air of RT, their real names were calculated - Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga. In the media sphere, Simonyan called this interview “ complete disaster».

Interesting moments from Margarita Simonyan's interview with suspects in the Skripal case

Combining journalistic and socio-political activities, Margarita manages to find time for creativity. She is a co-author of the script for her husband's film "Crimean Bridge: Made with Love", which was released in the fall of 2018, but grossed just over a million dollars at the box office and received devastating reviews from film critics.

Margarita Simonyan is one of the most famous Russian journalists and writers. She went from a news correspondent to the head of one of the federal television channels. Working on television, the girl was engaged in parallel youth policy, and subsequently received an offer to head the RT channel. The biography of Margarita Simonyan is the story of how a girl with Armenian roots came to conquer the capital and became one of the most influential women in Russia.

Childhood and youth

Margarita Simonyan was born in Krasnodar in 1980. The family lived in a small house, father Simon was engaged in the repair of equipment and worked part-time at a sawmill, and mother Zinaida worked as an entrepreneur, selling things on the market. Margarita comes from a purebred Armenian family, which, during the collapse of the USSR, decided to leave their homeland, where Civil War and settled in calm Krasnodar. Like many in those days, Margarita's parents could not find a use for their knowledge, so they lived extremely poorly, living on temporary earnings.

Margarita, along with her younger sister Alice, was brought up in the traditions of the Armenian and Russian people. According to the memoirs of future journalism, she was drawn to knowledge from childhood., she knew how to write and read well at the age of five, so her parents sent the girl to a school with in-depth study of the English language. As the best student in the ninth grade, Margarita is sent for a school internship in the United States, which radically changed her life, influencing her subsequent choice of profession and plans for her future career.

As a child, Margarita was fond of:

• athletics;
• dancing;
• literature;
• English language.

The internship in New Hampshire took several years, Margarita was able not only to master a foreign language perfectly, but also got to know everyday life America. When the training ended, the girl was offered to stay in the States and continue her studies at an American university. However, the future famous Russian journalist decides to return to her homeland. According to her, she felt that she could benefit her country, so she should still live in Russia, and not in America.

With excellent knowledge gained in the USA, Margarita Simonyan easily enters the Kuban University at the Faculty of Journalism. Initially, the girl planned to enter her favorite literature, but she was convinced by her parents and acquaintances, who claimed that, having become a journalist, she could subsequently continue her education in Moscow. Successfully graduated from the Kuban University, Simonyan moves to the capital, where he studies at the Moscow School of Television Excellence.

Work on Kuban television

In the early nineties, Margarita graduated from the Moscow School of Television Excellence and decided to return to the Krasnodar Territory, where she got a job in the news department of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Initially, the girl worked as an intern, but then she received the position of a war correspondent. At that time, there was a war in Chechnya and Simonyan was sent to a troubled republic to cover events in hot spots. It was at this time that she received an award for professional courage from the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Rostov-on-Don.

The young journalist was quickly noticed in the capital's leadership of the TV channel and transferred from Krasnodar to Moscow, immediately making him a correspondent for the Vesti program. At that time, on the VGTRK TV channel, a course was taken to update the composition of journalists and news anchors, so the young girl, with virtually no work experience, began to constantly conduct news programs in the prestigious evening.

Simonyan also constantly traveled on business trips to Chechnya and hot spots, in 2004 she conducted a live report from Beslan, talking about the terrorists taking hostages at a school. The journalist herself subsequently said that she could hardly survive such a drama and the death of children.

Transition to Russia Today

In 2005, the Russian authorities decided to create a new international television channel, the main purpose of which is to cover news from Russia and its position in relation to other states. The leadership of the newly created TV channel assured that Russia Today would be truthful and open about Russia's views on issues that are often simply hushed up in the international media.

The creation of the new TV channel was led by Press Minister Mikhail Lesin and Alexei Gromov, who at that time was the president's press secretary. The choice of the editor-in-chief fell on Margarita Simonyan, who had talent, great potential and knew English perfectly.

The appointment of a girl who has, by force, 5 years of experience in journalism, caused reasonable questions in the press. Evil tongues even claimed that Simonyan was able to get such a high position solely thanks to her acquaintances with federal officials, whom she knew well from her work in the youth department of United Russia.

Initially, at Russia Today, Simonyan oversaw the English-language direction of broadcasting, and then became the editor of the Arabic and Spanish versions of RT. Three years later, the newly created Russian international channel was present in the broadcasting of most countries in the world, and even surpassed Euronews and France 24 in its popularity. According to Margarita Simonyan, such popularity of Russia Today was due to a fresh look at current events in world politics and patriotism the dignity of every Russian.

In 2010, a successful journalist and director of a federal channel is included in the personnel reserve of Vladimir Putin, and after 2 years she becomes the editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya news agency. Currently, Simonyan combines the positions of editor-in-chief of a news agency and manages the Russia Today TV channel. The journalist is promoting the radio station and the news service of the Sputnik news agency.

Other achievements

Working at the same time as the editor-in-chief of the federal television channel, Simonyan acted as the host and author of the analytical program called "What's going on." At the same time, the Iron Lady program was broadcast on the RTR channel, where Margarita, together with Ksenia Sobchak and Tina Kandelaki, successfully hosts a talk show popular with viewers. According to Simonyan, working directly in the studio with real people is good school for every journalist, including the head of the TV channel.

Margarita was fond of literature since childhood, for 18 years in a local literary magazine Simonyan published her first poem. In 2010, the novel “To Moscow” was published, which tells about truths that are understandable and simple for every person, tells about love, overcoming difficulties and dreams. This book became popular with readers, critics spoke positively about it, who noted Simonyan's interesting and lively word.

According to books and scripts written by Margarita, various series were filmed. The main roles in the sitcoms were played by Svetlana Ivanova, Larisa Guzeeva, Sergey Nikonenko and Alena Khmelnitskaya. These works did not have any huge success with the audience, but it is also impossible to call them failures.

Personal life of Margarita Simonyan

It is known that in the early 2000s, Simonyan was in a relationship with her colleague Andrei Blagodyrenko, but later the couple decided to leave, while maintaining a good working relationship. Margarita herself noted that all her free time is occupied by work and she simply does not have time to deal with her personal life.

In 2012, the series "Actress" was released on television, in which Alena Khmelnitskaya played the main role. Simonyan, who was a screenwriter, often visited the set, where she became friends with a famous actress, becoming a frequent guest in her house. Soon, journalists became aware that Khmelnitskaya, after 21 years successful marriage divorces her husband Tigran Keosayan. According to rumors, the reason for the breakup of the couple was the affair of a famous film director with a journalist and head of the Russia TV channel. Today by Margarita Simonyan.

Margarita herself subsequently told reporters that Tigran at the time of their acquaintance already had bad relations in the family and he practically did not live with his wife. Initially, they were only friends, and after the director became free, a relationship began between them, and soon the couple decided to get married. In 2013 took place magnificent wedding, to which, according to Armenian tradition, all relatives and friends were invited. The couple soon had children:

• Son of Bagrat.
• Daughter Mariana.

The children of Tigran Keosayan and his new wife have a schedule scheduled by the minute. Son Bagrat goes in for sports and studies languages, and daughter Maryana is fond of dancing. According to the mother, the daughter constantly attends various creative circles. Simonyan often talks about his unique children. Daughter Maryana at the age of 5 can speak five languages, is engaged in painting and, like her mother, loves literature.

It is known that in 2018 Margarita became a confidant of the president, actively urging people to vote for him during the elections and supporting the policies of Vladimir Putin in everything. Simonyan notes that in Russia today the reliability of information and freedom of speech are guaranteed, and Vladimir Putin is largely responsible for this.

In the media sphere, the last project with the participation of Simonyan was called a complete disaster. On the air of the RT TV channel, a well-known journalist interviewed the alleged Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, who were called the alleged poisoners in London of the fugitive Skripal intelligence officer. During the conversation, Simonyan tried to establish the truth by presenting the two young people not as GRU agents, but as unlucky gay businessmen who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Margarita Simonyan is such an interesting personality 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 has in mind not only Armenia, but the entire 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, Forbes media source 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 at the same time laughs contagiously?

Brief biography

• Full name: 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: not officially married; is in a 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 the childhood and youth of Margarita Simonyan

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-grandmother and great-grandfather fled to the Crimea in pre-revolutionary times, fleeing the Turkish genocide. Sadly, the new homeland prepared the family a painful blow: 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. The father of our heroine, 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, they had two daughters - Margarita and Alice.

Oh, these streets of the times of the USSR, bearing the names of great writers! Well, why, if Pushkin Street is necessarily central, with solid "skyscrapers", and when Gogol or Chekhov - slums for the poor? It was on such Gogol street in Krasnodar that Rita's childhood passed: "Italian" courtyards with a large balcony-veranda for many apartments, in a common kitchen - each hostess has a small stove with her own gas bottle. From the water supply - only a drain hatch next to the kitchen, a toilet - a "cesspool" with vacuum cleaners who come once a month. And Rita's mother carried water up shaky stairs in buckets from a pump ... Dad was engaged in repairing electronic equipment, he was especially famous in the city as a master of refrigerators, mom sold flowers in the market.

Despite the fact that there was frankly “no money” in the family (how many thousands a refrigerator master or a flower seller in the USSR could earn!), Parents tried to pamper Rita and her younger sister Alice: the girls always had elegant dresses and good toys. But the living conditions, no matter how hard you try, left much to be desired, and Margarita already then swore to herself: she would study, then work so that she had a good apartment with gas, hot water, good furniture. When the eldest girl in the Simonyanov family turned ten years old, her parents finally got separate housing in a new microdistrict of the city.

Already in kindergarten Rita learned to read fluently, and often she arranged “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), but with an in-depth study of English, because in an ordinary school it would be boring for her to study: at the age of seven she not only read fluently, but also knew the basics of mathematics. Rita's father and mother proudly boasted to their neighbors that their daughter brings only “five” in her diary, especially praised her Russian language teachers (the school was not only with additional study of English, but also Russian-speaking).

The year 1995 in the Land of Soviets is the time for the slightly raised "Iron Curtain", which closed several generations of those 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 USA. Rita Simonyan got into 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 her final exams home school. All exams were passed "excellent", Margarita became the only "medalist" in the class.

Student and first journalistic experience

Rita's parents are full-blooded Armenians, so in the daughters' passports in the column "nationality" they wrote "Armenian". By the way, the father and mother of the journalist spoke different dialects of their native language, but for eldest daughter Russian became native - she went to a Russian school, and in such schools other languages ​​were taught "in so far as" in Soviet time. But the girl, fluent in Russian and English, without difficulty entered Krasnodar University at the Faculty of Journalism after school.

In her first year at the university, Margarita tried herself in 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 a talented girl, and these conversations reached the leadership of the Krasnodar TV channel. Just on the channel they were looking for new, fresh ideas, and they decided to interview the student poetess. The plot about Margarita Simonyan - the first appearance of the future "star" of the media on television - became the start of the entire future career of a young journalist. "Journalists" - because Rita took the opportunity and asked to take her on an internship, and now she is already a presenter and journalist of 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 were already “going wild”, and she applied for a job in “ hot spot", specifically to Chechnya. A fragile nineteen-year-old girl is going to Chechnya for ten days - she did not even tell her parents about it, fearing their fright. Only when they saw their daughter on TV in the news, dad and mom found out that Rita was literally talking about the events in Chechnya under bullets. 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 enters the School of Television Excellence without leaving the university, 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 is the post of editor-in-chief of the Krasnodar TV channel. But I still wanted more, and a year later the young woman moved to Rostov-on-Don to work there already in the All-Union State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (as a simple correspondent, mind you). And again, she rushes into “hot spots”: this time it was Abkhazia, the audience especially remembered the reports from the Kodori Gorge, where the girl participated in the filming of 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, in the Vesti program.

Someone will say: “Yes, just lucky!”, But it was certainly not by chance that Vladimir Putin invited Margarita to the group of journalists who accompanied him during his presidential tour of the country in 2002. Two years later, in September 2004, she goes to Beslan: every half an hour in extraordinary news, the girl appears on TV and tells the whole country how the process of releasing the 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”! Later, answering the question of whether young journalists should start a career in a “problem” area, Margarita categorically said: “No way! It's so hard, so vile ... The psyche can break!

2005: RIA Novosti decided to create new project, named "Russia Today". The founders of the project were categorically against the appointment of someone from the "old guard" of journalists as the head. They wanted a person with an “unblurred” look, who had not seen the old news, who was not accustomed to Soviet standards of news broadcasting, to come to this post. Margarita Simonyan was appointed the head of the television channel of the Russia Today project - she, with her uncompromising and at the same time “fresh” work style, was the best fit for the position.

The project "Russia Today" was originally 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 post of editor-in-chief, and everyone was incredibly surprised when a twenty-five-year-old journalist was "put" in the chair of the leadership. Yes, it was precisely a "forced" appointment, but wasn't Margarita with her extensive work experience, with the ability to "digest" a huge amount of information, with excellent knowledge of English - really not worthy? "Russia Today" as the project began to expand rapidly, Arabic and Spanish versions appeared, and again the editor-in-chief - Margarita Simonyan.

photo https://www.instagram.com/_m_simonyan_/

That they just didn’t write impartial, as soon as they didn’t “rinse” her name when she began to establish new orders in the company with an “iron hand”! Allegedly, she fired everyone who was objectionable to her, for ridiculous reasons. Lies clean water: 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 endorsed by her personally, which is what it is). Not a single employee who left Russia Today at the end of his contract or being fired (there were also such later) was infringed in terms of performance or care payments. And the fact that she established iron discipline in the company (to the point that employees were obliged not to visit social networks during work) is that 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 bad discipline.

Despite the almost round-the-clock employment in Russia Today, Margarita tried herself in other projects. On the REN-TV channel, under her leadership, in the spring of 2011, the analytical program “What is happening?” Was launched. The transfer lasted a little more than six months: too dangerous topics both the presenter and the participants, witnesses of the “acute” events in the country, rose in it, spoke too sharply in it. Together with the Georgian Tina Kandelaki, Simonyan opened another project on NTV in 2013 - the political "female" talk show "Iron Ladies", that's where her nickname came from! And simultaneously with the closing of "What's going on?" (a paradox: the program is closed, but trusted!) she is invited to the Board of Directors of Channel One.

Enemies call Margarita the "third," female "hand" of the President of Russia. 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 Central Internal Affairs Directorate of Moscow, she quickly moves to the Public Council again, but under the Russian Foreign Ministry - an incredibly high rise in a woman's career! Between 2005 and 2018, Simonyan is 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 dissatisfaction of ill-wishers began to openly “go wild”. Well, it really looks like the “third hand” of our president, but this hand is firm and correct.

Dissatisfaction with her uncompromising and rigidity resulted in the fact that in 2014 Margarita Simonyan was officially banned from entering the territory of Ukraine. Also, not everyone is satisfied with her activities as the 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, does not get tired of accusing Rossiya Segodnya and Margarita personally of the fact that "NATO's position on conflict situations in the world is not objectively reflected" (quoted from Ofcom's publication). And she objected publicly with humor: “You might think that, for example, the BBC objectively at least once reflected the Kremlin’s position on these issues…”

According to the latest financial Forbes magazine Margarita Simonyan - in fifty-second place in the hundred "Most Influential Women in the World." In Russia, in the same ranking, she is in fifteenth place. In addition to the Order of Friendship, the list of her awards includes the personal gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, the medal of Armenia Movses Khorenatsi. Now Margarita Simonyan, in addition to Rossiya Segodnya, is the editor-in-chief and the “subsidiary” of this MIA project is 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 marry! “Mom even choked on her favorite mint tea,” Margarita later recalled this scene. She probably thought so categorically because “I 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 betrayals.” Until almost thirty years old, Margarita had no idea to get married, and even more so to have children.

In 2012, the "iron lady" of Russian television suddenly opened the curtain that covered her personal life. It turned out that she had a personal life: “General life, ficus and plans for the future,” and this “ficus” was her colleague, Andrey Blagodyrenko. Common work, similar views (Andrey was also famous in the media for uncompromisingness and rigidity) should have pushed the couple to 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, “turning everything along with the ficuses.” This is how the woman later described the appearance of Tigran Keosayan in her fate (the words are 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, he was especially struck by reports from Beslan. “What if it’s a fake, you never know Pedrov in Brazil (to paraphrase the words from a famous comedy)?” Rita thought, but answered the fan.

The mysterious admirer turned out not to be fake, but real: the Facebook correspondence was followed by phone conversations, and the first date was set. “We had lunch, but it was so tasty that I wanted to have dinner. And then it quickly turned into breakfasts, ”- 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. Specially swore, parted. The first time the parting lasted a day, the last - twenty minutes, ”again the words of Margarita.

Rita and Tigran did not plan to immediately "acquire" offspring, although both were far from young. But "despite all the precautions" (according to the woman), she soon found out that she would be a mother. Here is how she told about her feelings at that time: “I sobbed, as I found out, for three months ... I sobbed the threat of a miscarriage, the doctors insisted on the hospital and hormone treatment.” Trusting 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 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 hospital to my grandmother and went straight to work: I was just being checked by the Accounts Chamber.”

Now, judging by the pictures in in social networks and according to the behavior of Rita and her civil husband Keosayan, they are absolutely happy. They did not formalize their relationship, and this causes considerable surprise among friends. The couple explains that this phenomenon is normal for Armenians: more than half of their parents' peers, for example, live happily together without stamps in their passports. Children of Margarita and Tigran early years receive an excellent education, parents invited teachers in drawing and foreign languages, music and yoga. Maryana is fond of dancing, Tigran - Thai boxing.

Such a tough, "iron" on TV, Margarita in life is a very educated and "plastic" woman. She managed to make friends with Tigran's ex-wife, Alena Khmelnitskaya. Women meet, organize holidays for children together. On the Internet there is a joint photo of them, signed " high relations”, where Margarita and Alena stand embracing like good friends. The current wife of Tigran says this about Alena: “She is phenomenal - kind, smart, and what a beauty! She is happy (there is a new husband, Sasha), I am happy, thank God we have nothing to share.

Interesting facts about Margarita Simonyan

1. 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,” the doctors said.
2. Margarita is categorically against her children studying abroad. “Foreign languages ​​can be learned here, but you can’t learn culture abroad,” she said.
3. Ethnic purebred Armenian, Rita Simonyan visited historical homeland for the first time during the president's trip to the countries of the former CIS in 2014.
4. Margarita learned from Tigran to write scripts, and she does it very well. They called the first joint picture "Sea, mountains, expanded clay." Another of her works, where the journalist starred in one of the main roles, is the thriller "Actress".
5. This thriller also starred and ex-wife Keosayan Alena Khmelnitskaya. “The entire film crew watched us warily as we managed to keep friendly relations”, Simonyan later said.
6. And again about the thriller "Actress" - the plot of the picture was dreamed of by a woman in a nightmare: "I woke up in a cold sweat at midnight and realized that I had to write down a dream, otherwise I would not fall asleep."
7. Rita and Tigran also shot the film “Crimean Bridge, Made with Love” together, and again Margarita is the scriptwriter, and her husband is the director.
8. Being the director of a large agency, earning very well, Margarita almost did not spend money on herself, except that she bought costumes for the broadcast. “Everything flew into mortgages, to help relatives,” she explained.
9. The first expensive handbag was bought for her by… Tigran. She liked the bag of a famous brand, but was prohibitively expensive in her opinion. Keosayan noticed just one look thrown at the shop window when they were walking, and secretly bought it. “I, like a child, laid it on a pillow next to me for several days,” Rita recalls fondly.
10. The first of January in the family "Keosayan-Simonyan" 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 threads lead from Simonyan to the USA?

The site kompromat.wiki publishes very interesting data.

For example, the focus of the resource was Margarita Simonyan, because Russian society wonders 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 piece of the Russian budget, reports Day.Az with reference to gradator.ru.

Simonyan Margarita Simonovna is a Russian journalist and media manager. Chief Editor channel RT since 2005, the international news agency Rossiya Segodnya since 2013 and the news agency Sputnik since 2014.

Simonyan Margarita Simonovna, 04/06/1980 year of birth, a native of Krasnodar.

Relatives. Sister: Simonyan Alisa Simonovna, 08/07/1981 year of birth. She was engaged in PR support for major federal projects, in particular, the construction of the Crimean Bridge and the holding of 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 power. In her opinion, Alisa Simonyan is "simply one of the best PR people in Russia."

Husband (civilian): Keosayan Tigran Edmondovich, born on 01/04/1966, 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 does business through the commercial structures of Keosayan, as he does not want to directly show government orders.

Keosayan himself received government money to make 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 the special school number 36 of the city of Krasnodar.

In the tenth grade, to improve her English, she was sent on an exchange to New Hampshire (USA) for a year as part of the Future Leaders Exchange program. During this trip, the future journalist, own words, was imbued with "some skepticism about democracy and a persistent dislike of American values." Of course, Margo 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 agencies.

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 with the propaganda of Armenian interests.

Then she graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the Kuban 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 high school, she worked as a correspondent for the Krasnodar television and radio company.

In 2001, she was appointed the chief editor of the information programs of the Krasnodar TV channel, and then as a correspondent for the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company 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", whose editor-in-chief was MS Simonyan. 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, in parallel, he has been the editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency, as well as the chief editor of the Sputnik news agency, affiliated with the Rossiya Segodnya news agency.

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 host of Armenian origin, Tina Kandelaki, who previously presented herself as a Georgian, on the NTV channel.

Relations/Partners

Blagodyrenko Andrey Alexandrovich, born on 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 associated with the Armenian diaspora in this city. He worked in Rostov-on-Don, where at some point Simonyan 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 went to another man, they are now in a relationship. Blagodyrenko was even attached to the Sputnik International Agency, whose editor-in-chief is Simonyan.

Gromov Aleksey Alekseevich, born May 31, 1960, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.

Gromov, since the 2000s, oversees 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 to create the Russia Today media holding. It was Gromov who decided to appoint Simonyan as the head of RT. Over time, Simonyan worked closely with Lesin.

Lesin also turned out to be an American hireling, fled to the United States, where he ended his days under strange circumstances in 2015, while Gromov still keeps Russia Today under special control and patronizes Simonyan. It is alleged that Gromov and Simonyan have common business interests.

Dobrodeev Oleg Borisovich, born on October 28, 1959, General Director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK). There are rumors that Simonyan can sit Dobrodeev in jail and, God forbid, head the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.

Kiselev Dmitry Konstantinovich, born April 26, 1954, General Director of the Russian international information agency "Russia Today", Deputy General Director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Kiselev, as the head of the Rossiya Segodnya MIA, appointed Simonyan the editor-in-chief of the agency, but in fact he is only a "wedding general."

To information

Margarita Simonovna Simonyan was born in Krasnodar, in an Armenian family of a refrigerator repairman and a flower seller in the market. But the Simonyan family was simple only at first glance. In fact, it enjoyed the support of the influential Armenian diaspora in Krasnodar. In addition, it was rumored that among the distant relatives of Margo was Eduard Shevardnadze himself. The fact that the Simonyan family was not so simple was evidenced by the fact that in school years the girl was sent under the Future Leaders Exchange program to American New Hampshire. And there is also information that Father Simonyan had influence in criminal circles, from Russia to America.

Subsequently, Margarita will assure that in the United States she was 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 just a coincidence?

If you think about it, Simonyan is a cunningly disguised American fosterling, and the resources she leads actually devalue Russia's image 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 the Kuban State University, but she studied at it in absentia, since already in her first year she was employed as a correspondent for the Krasnodar television and radio company. The young girl was clearly "molded" with a career.

A 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 regional television and radio companies, and at the Krasnodar TV and radio company they were promoted to the leading editor of news programs. However, she worked in a new position for no more than six months, since she moved from regional television to the all-federal All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, as a correspondent in Rostov-on-Don.

Already in 2002, Margarita was called to Moscow as a special correspondent for Vesti. Earlier, the Kuban TV producer Andrei Blagodyrenko moved to the capital, who headed the Profilm production company in the Mother See. It is difficult to say whether he contributed to the move of the journalist, but soon they began to live together. At the same time, a girl from Krasnodar, who had not yet finished her studies, was immediately assigned to the so-called presidential pool and began to cover almost all the trips of Vladimir Putin.

In 2004, Simonyan was entrusted with reporting live 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 their exact figure was 1128 people. In addition, she stated that "terrorists do not put forward demands," while their main point was the "withdrawal of troops from Chechnya."

False information angered local residents, whose relatives ended up in the captured school. The terrorists also saw this broadcast, after which they significantly tightened the conditions for the residents of Beslan captured by them.

Literally six months later, Margarita Simonovna was awarded the then Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov with the medal "For Strengthening the Combat Commonwealth".

In 2005, Gromov and Lesin, who at that time became an adviser to the President, but continued to oversee the Russian media, decided to create a television channel that would form public opinion from a Western audience "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 reason to be surprised.

The new TV channel had a large budget by Russian standards and has since reached broadcast 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 major cities of the world. And all this was supposed to be run by yesterday's graduate of the correspondence department of the journalism faculty of the Kuban State University. Many of Margarita's colleagues expressed their dissatisfaction when the chief editor of Russia Today, favored by the authorities, was presented with state awards.

It is obvious that in its progress on career ladder 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 did not want to work for a foreign audience, so she knocked on the door of her Russian colleagues. At first, she was sheltered 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 the model of Soviet propaganda."

Then Simonyan tried herself on the radio as the leading weekly column "Point of View" on the frequency of "Kommersant FM", but here they broke up with her just a few issues later. Then there was NTV and the Iron Ladies program jointly with Tina Kandelaki, which also lasted no more than six months. Television critics compared the hosts to "kitchen gossips who are trying to talk about big politics."

In December 2013, on the basis of RIA Novosti, the International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya was created, headed by journalist Dmitry Kiselev. In the 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 office of the Sputnik news agency, affiliated with the Rossiya Segodnya MIA.

In 2015, one of Simonyan's patrons, Mikhail Lesin, died in the United States. Various sources have claimed that former minister seal was either beaten to death or killed with a baseball bat. The leaks allegedly came from the FBI. Lesin was found dead in a hotel located in downtown Washington. In this hotel, he was allegedly 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" "Russia Today" works. Political scientist Gleb Pavlovsky even called the murder a staging and suggested that Lesin was quietly working for the US intelligence services. After the death of her past 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 become a very close friend of the late politician, and how he played backgammon with her Krasnodar Armenian grandmother.

It is not known whether Lesin was really supposed 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 was investigating the activities of the RT TV channel and the Sputnik news agency. In the hands of the bureau staff was HDD, containing internal documents and correspondence from Sputnik employees, which were given to them by one of the former reporters for the agency, Andrew Feinberg.

And in the fall of the same year, the US Department of Justice demanded that RT America register as a "foreign agent." This was a fairly large legislative precedent for the United States, since media in this country had not previously received such requirements. Following Russia Today and Sputnik, other foreign TV channels like Al Jazeera could have received similar status. As a result, on November 10, 2017, the US Department of Justice officially entered T&R Productions LLC, which served the RT America television channel, into the list of foreign agents.

At the same time, to say that the Simonyan TV channel really somehow influenced the political moods of US citizens was a big 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 30,000 people.

Periodically, the channel's audience expanded significantly due to large informational occasions associated with Russia. One such event happened in the fall of 2018. Then everyone was discussing two Russian citizens who appeared on the recordings of street cameras in the British city of Salisbury, precisely in those days and near the places where he was poisoned former employee GRU defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. After these videos were made public in the media, the Russian authorities announced that the identities of those present on them were established and that they were civilians, one 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 obviously 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 bleak at all, confused in their testimony, and if a more professional journalist had asked them questions, it is not known where these answers would have led them. As a result, the interview turned out to be in the comedy genre and was quickly dismantled into quotes and "memes".

Probably, the same Aleksey Gromov, who by that time had become First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, made sure that the meeting took place on RT. At least, Aleksey Alekseevich did not forget his protégé all these years. It was she, along with her common-law husband Keosayan, who was invited to make a film for the Sochi Olympics "Sea. Mountains. Expanded clay." And later, the same couple took up the film "Crimean Bridge. Made with Love."

And it turned out to be a complete spent and a laughing stock.

Someone claimed that the 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 hired to build 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 movie was shot at the studio of David Keosayan's brother, and his niece Laura Keosayan and his first wife Alena Khmelnitskaya were in the lead roles. It should be said that the film, understandably, failed at the box office, never paid off, and received terrible press from independent film critics.

But the film industry was not the only business linking Simonyan and her relatives to a high-ranking official. In particular, her younger sister Alice could also be indebted to Gromov.

Registered as an individual entrepreneur, she received orders for PR of the most important state 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 at Arkady Rotenberg's Stroygazmontazh company and, as its employee, supervised the work of the Crimean Bridge information center. True, this center was established by the Prime agency and the Eurasian Communications Center, which were structures of Rossiya Segodnya. In this information center worked and younger son Gromov Danila.

Margarita Simonovna herself was engaged in commercial activities through IP. According to her own statements, it was she who started this business, and then attracted her sister as an employee, and only later she "separated".

Sometimes Simonyan had to connect her husband to do business. Some clients were not satisfied with the status of an individual entrepreneur, and then Margarita Simonovna concluded contracts through the Coliseum company, owned by Keosayan.

In 2019, a large interview with Simonyan was published. It is curious that the TV producer poured out his soul in the Telegram blocked by Roskomnadzor, and specifically on the Nezygar channel. Alexei Gromov is considered to be the curator of this information platform, and in particular Nezygar, in the Kremlin. It was rumored that Margarita Simonovna decided to have a frank conversation, due to the fact that a new big appointment had been prepared for her. In particular, there were rumors that the journalist decided to sit 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-paced career, ordinary viewers did not much like the production talent of Margarita Simonovna.

For many, Simonyan simply irritated. Often, the editor-in-chief of the TV channel "Russia Today" collected a whole scattering of critical comments under her posts on social networks. Once she told about her awkward feelings in those moments when she had to call an ambulance. In particular, the journalists are uncomfortable in front of the medical staff for the "oak stairs", "oak parquet", "English wallpapers and a vintage Italian chandelier" in a "nice house" in a "nice village near Moscow". "It's as if I stole it all," exclaimed Margarita Simonovna. The phrase "as if I stole it all" instantly spread among the people. "Stolen" - that was the softest answer to the editor-in-chief of "RT".

"Prodigy" domestic journalism- Margarita Simonyan managed to head the Russia Today media holding at the age of twenty-five. At the same time, close relatives of Margarita Simonovna now also show not hefty abilities, receiving contracts from the state for PR support of the country's largest events and making films with the money of the Cinema Fund. True, an ordinary viewer cannot understand why the state gave such advances to an ordinary journalist.