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Russian journalist Simonyan Margarita Simonovna has been the editor-in-chief of the Russia Today (Russia Today) TV channel since 2013. When she took office, she was only 25 years old. This appointment became the most discussed topic at that time, many wondered why on earth this 25-year-old Armenian girl was entrusted with such a responsible position. What distinguished Simonyan Margarita Simonovna? Compromising evidence on her person, in spite of everything, was not found. And the passions subsided. Further in the material, we will tell you about the life of this interesting woman who managed to make such a successful career.

The future journalist was born in early April 1980, in the southern city of Krasnodar. Margarita has a sister named Alice. After she took the position of the general director of the RT TV channel in 2013, many began to wonder who Simonyan's parents were. Margarita Simonovna and her sister from childhood lived in rather modest conditions. Their father worked as a refrigerator repairman, and their mother worked as a flower girl and traded flowers at the market from morning till night. The money earned by the parents was enough only for food. Their house was very old and was located on one of the outskirts of Krasnodar streets, named after the legendary Russian writer N.V. Gogol. The house was full of rats, there were no the most basic living conditions: gas, sewerage and running water. Today it is hard to believe that the Soviet Union could have had such terrible living conditions. The girls had to live in this nightmare for about 10 years, after which the family was given an apartment. It was life at the “bottom” that pushed Margarita to an irresistible desire to break out of poverty and take place in life.

Despite the fact that Margarita's parents did not pay much attention to the development of the intellectual and creative abilities of their children, the girls grew up smart and very diligent. Little Ritochka was one of the first in the kindergarten group to start reading. The teacher asked her to read fairy tales to her classmates before going to bed. Later, Simonyan Margarita Simonovna was taken to the 1st grade of the specialized school number 36 of the city of Krasnodar. Here they were engaged in in-depth study of foreign languages. It turned out that the girl has a great ability to English. She studied perfectly well and was sent to the Olympiads. When the girl was 16 years old, and she studied in the 9th grade, then an excellent opportunity opened up for her to improve her knowledge of English to the proper one. She was sent to study in the United States, in the state of New Hampshire, as part of the student exchange program. She lived in a very friendly and warm family, went to an American school, talked with peers and comprehended the peculiarities of life in mysterious America. With this family she still has excellent, one might say “family” relationship. Margarita even thought about staying overseas, but soon realized that she was most comfortable living in her native country.

After leaving school, it is worth noting, with a medal of distinction, Simonyan Margarita Simonovna, whose biography is the topic of this article, entered the Faculty of Journalism of the Kuban State University, in parallel with this she studied at the V. Pozner School of Television Skills, and also wrote poetry. It turned out that a collection of poems by an 18-year-old Armenian woman aroused interest in the press, and a film crew came to her house to report on her. It was during this interview that she let slip that she wants to be a journalist. And then she received an offer to work on Krasnodar television.

In December 1999, she went to Chechnya to cover the hostilities. At the same time, Margarita decided to feel sorry for her parents and only told them that she was going on another business trip. In parallel, Margarita began filming stories for federal channels. Her fearlessness and professionalism were highly appreciated by the government, and Margarita Simonovna Simonyan was awarded many federal awards. A year later, she became the leading editor of the information portal of the Krasnodar TRK, and in 2000 she was appointed editor-in-chief at the same TV channel. Later, the girl moved to the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Channel in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Then Margarita decides to continue her "military" career and goes to Abkhazia, writes reports about the clashes in the Kodori Gorge.

In 2002, Simonyan Margarita Simonovna finally received an invitation from the directorate of the Vesti TV program to work as a correspondent, of course, having moved to the capital. Of course, she gladly accepted the offer, and soon she was already part of the presidential pool. In September 2004, a terrible tragedy happened in Beslan, North Ossetia. At that time Margarita was in Minvody. She received an order from the editorial board of the channel and went to the scene. All the time while the hostages were in the hands of the militants, she stood at the school and went on the air every half hour. Sometimes her voice was cut off by sobs choking her. After that, she could not calm down for a long time.

In 2005, the Russia Today TV channel appeared in Moscow. He delivered information in English and was called upon to express the official Russian position on various political situations in the world. In the professional sphere, many were perplexed that it was Margarita Simonyan who had been appointed editor-in-chief of the channel. Despite this, RIA Novosti presented arguments regarding this appointment. According to them, the head of the service had to be so young not to remember what news was going on on Soviet television. She must have a new mindset, a modern outlook on what is happening. In addition, she knew English perfectly and could objectively assess the flow of information. Subsequently, Margarita also directed the Arabic-language and Spanish-language versions of the TV channel.

In 2011, Margarita decided to create a personal news project “What's going on” on the REN TV channel and be its host. The program came out every week, where M.S.Simonyan discussed the most important events of the last days, which federal channels avoided talking about. Direct participants in these events were invited to the program. Two years later, a new political show appeared on NTV, hosted by Margarita Simonyan and Tina Kandelaki, an Armenian and a Georgian. The program was called The Iron Ladies. But for some reason, the show was canceled.

Since childhood, Margarita dreamed of being a writer. She wrote poetry, and at the age of 18 released a collection of poems written by her. Her next book was published in 2010 and was titled "To Moscow". This is a novel about the generation of the nineties, about the problems, difficult fates of people whose lives coincided with the split of the Soviet Union, about the unfulfilled dreams of young people who in an instant lost their present and future. A year after the release of the novel, Margarita received the award for the best book written by a journalist. Her next work was the story "Train". She published excerpts from it in the Russian Pioneer magazine, for this magazine she also writes articles on culinary topics.

The journalist does not like to talk about herself. In 2012, in an interview, she said that for 6 years now she and journalist Andrei Blagodyrenko have been living in a civil marriage, regarding the consolidation of official relations and a wedding, she is absolutely not ready for this. In the same year, Margarita went to Sochi, where the construction of the Simonyanov family restaurant “Hot!” Was underway. It was there that she became close to her compatriot, the famous director. Tigran Keosayan and Margarita Simonyan spent more and more time together. And everyone already perceived them as a couple, despite the fact that Tigran continued to be married to actress Alena Khmelnitskaya. A year later, in the summer of 2013, Margarita had a daughter, who was named Maryana. The next year, she and Tigran had a son, who was named by the Armenian name Bagrat. Today Simonyan Margarita Simonovna and Keosayan Tigran are a family, although they have not legalized their relationship. They have two wonderful children growing up.

In 2000, Margarita was in the arena of hostilities in Chechnya and was reporting in a bulletproof vest. For her devotion to the profession, for courage and professionalism, she was given a state prize. In the same year, Margarita became the winner of the II All-Russian competition of regional TV and radio companies. Her television coverage of Chechen children was recognized as the best. All in the same 2000, she was also awarded a presidential scholarship.

In 2010, in Moscow, the Armenian president presented the famous journalist with the Movses Khorenatsi medal, the highest government award of the Republic of Armenia. She has several more state awards of the Russian Federation: “For Services to the Fatherland of the 4th degree” (2014), two “Order of Friendship” (2007 and 2008), etc. In 2012, the name of Margarita Simonyan was included in the list of 100 most influential women Russia, where she took 33rd place. She is a member of the public council at the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, and since 2013, on the appointment of D. Kiselev, she has assumed the post of editor-in-chief of MIA "Russia"

After what happened in Ukraine, Margarita Simonyan was included in the list of 49 journalists and media leaders who were banned from entering the republic.

Margarita Simonyan is a Russian journalist, editor-in-chief of the Russia Today TV channel, the international news agency Rossiya Segodnya and the Sputnik news agency.

Having started her career as an ordinary correspondent for a provincial television studio, she managed to take one of the leading positions in Russian television journalism. Today Simonyan is among the first hundred of the most influential women in the world according to Forbes.

Childhood and youth

Margarita Simonyan was born on April 6, 1980 in the Russian city of Krasnodar. The girl, together with her sister Alice, grew up in a poor family. Father Simon, an Armenian by nationality, earned a living by fixing refrigerators, and mother Zinaida sold flowers in the market. There are rumors on the Web that Margarita also has Jewish roots.

As the journalist later wrote from the pages of LJ and Instagram, the girls lived with their parents in an old house on Gogol Street, where rats were constantly running, there was no gas, running water or sewerage. The difficult living conditions only strengthened the girl's desire to escape from poverty and achieve comfortable living conditions. When Margarita was about 10 years old, the Simonyan family was allocated an apartment in a new microdistrict of the city.

According to information that later appeared in the article "Komsomolskaya Pravda", the romance between the journalist and the director began on the initiative of Tigran. He wrote a message to the girl on the social network Facebook, where he expressed support to Margarita: at that time, a persecution was carried out against her on the radio. Initially, Simonyan did not pay attention to the letter, since she did not believe that the famous director would be interested in her person. But the correspondence ended with a joint dinner at a restaurant. Soon, a relationship began between the journalist and the filmmaker, which grew into a civil marriage.

Margarita Simonyan and Tigran Keosayan

In September 2014, Margarita's son Bagrat was born. At the same time, on the page of one of the social networks, Keosayan confirmed that he had become a father. Later it turned out that this is the second child of the couple - in August 2013, Margarita gave birth to her husband's daughter Maryana. As the journalist said in an interview, she recalls with gratitude the time when she was pregnant. Each time, Margarita experienced a surge of strength and never suffered from toxicosis, despite the fact that she survived the threat of miscarriage with Maryana.

Simonyan is committed to early childhood education. In a playful way, teachers-linguists study with Maryana and Bagrat, therefore, already at such an early age, children speak five languages ​​- Russian, Armenian, English, French and Chinese.

It is interesting that friendly relations have been established between the ex-wife of Tigran Keosayan - Alena Khmelnitskaya and Margarita Simonyan. The women became best friends, and even together with the director they created a project - the psychological thriller "Actress". In the creation of the film, which was successfully broadcast on the NTV channel, Margarita participated as a screenwriter.

For the third time, Margarita became a mother on October 19, 2019, his wife gave Tigran a son, Maro. The woman published the relevant news on Instagram, after which she began to receive congratulations from family and friends.

Margarita Simonyan and her children

Rumors about Margarita's third pregnancy have been circulating on the Web for a long time, but the journalist decided to confirm the information only in April 2019 in the program.

And already in March 2020, Simonyan again shared the news about the expected addition. She became pregnant just 4 months after the third birth, but she took this fact as a blessing and admitted that she was ready to become a mother for her fourth child. Unfortunately, it soon became known that the TV presenter had lost this child.

Simonyan maintains a page on Instagram, where he uploads photos with his family and footage related to her journalistic activities. She does not publish pictures from her vacation, in a swimsuit, on the shores of the azure sea or ocean, preferring to leave this part of her life out of sight of subscribers. Margarita does not have a personal website; she publishes all the information on her profiles on social networks.

Simonyan is friends with many Russian stars and presenters. Proof of this is the photos of a woman who periodically appear on social networks of various media personalities. For example, in the spring of 2018, she posted a picture of her company in her profile, and Simonyan signed that their company was similar to the Sopranos.

Work allows Margarita, together with her husband, to provide children with a comfortable life. Although she does not show her income statement, it is clear without this that the journalist's salary is estimated at more than one thousand dollars.

Journalism and career

In 1999, Simonyan began working as a correspondent for the Krasnodar television and radio channel. She managed to get this work thanks to a collection of poems of her own composition, which Margarita published a year earlier. The TV channel decided to shoot a story about a talented girl. Talking to the film crew, Simonyan mentioned that she wanted to work as a journalist, and she was offered an internship on the TV channel. The choice of the first place of work determined the future professional biography of Margarita.

At the age of 19, the girl went to shoot a story in Chechnya. A miniature figure (her height was 160 cm) did not prevent her from showing masculinity and strength of character. Margarita told her parents that she was going to the war zone only upon her return, after 10 days. A series of reports in one of the hot spots of the world brought fame to Margarita Simonyan and a number of journalistic awards: "For Professional Courage", the first prize of the All-Russian competition of regional TV and radio companies and the Russian Order of Friendship.

In 2000, Simonyan became editor-in-chief of the Krasnodar TV channel, and a year later - a correspondent for the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company in Rostov-on-Don. She continued her career as a military journalist, having visited Abkhazia, covering the clash of militants with the state army in the Kodori Gorge.

Margarita Simonyan and Vladimir Putin

In 2002, Margarita Simonyan was invited to Moscow as a correspondent for the Vesti TV program. The journalist accompanied the President of Russia, being among the presidential pool of journalists. In September 2004, she went to Beslan to cover the events of the hostage-taking at the school. The tragedy influenced Margarita's worldview and views; in an interview, she advises young journalists not to start a career as war correspondents.

In 2005, the Russia Today TV channel was created, which broadcasted in English and was designed to reflect Russia's position on international events. Margarita Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief of the Russia Today TV channel.

The founders of RIA Novosti argued that the appointment of such a young person to such a position was that the project should be led by a person who had not seen Soviet news, who had his own ideas about how to show Russian news to foreign viewers. Later, Margarita also began to supervise the Arabic-language and Spanish-language versions of the channel.

In 2011, the girl became a TV presenter of the news project "What's going on?" on the REN-TV channel. During the program, she discussed the most significant events of the week, which for some reason were not adequately covered on federal channels. Margarita communicated with direct participants in the events and spectators.

Margarita Simonyan and Tina Kandelaki

In 2013, Simonyan became the TV presenter of the political show "Iron Ladies" on the NTV channel. Together with her colleague Tina Kandelaki on the air, the journalist asked not always convenient, but topical questions to well-known politicians and businessmen. In the same year, the channel's management decided to close the show.

At the end of 2013, Margarita Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief of the international news agency Russia Today.

From early childhood, Margarita dreamed of becoming a writer and engaging in print journalism. At the age of 18 she published a collection of her own poems. In 2010 she published the book "To Moscow". Due to her active journalism and editorial activities, the writing of the book took about 10 years. This novel tells about the generation of the 90s and hard fates, unfulfilled dreams. In 2011, thanks to her novel, Simonyan won the prize for the best book by a journalist.

In 2012, Margarita published an excerpt from her new story "Train" on the pages of the Russian Pioneer magazine. The girl also writes culinary articles for this publication. A couple of years later, her story "The Rat" got into the publication, which caused a lot of discussion on the Web.

Margarita Simonyan, Tina Kandelaki, Philip Kirkorov and Mikhail Galustyan

Margarita supports the policy of the existing political system in Russia. In 2018, she became a confidant of Vladimir Putin during the presidential campaign. At the same time, the journalist published a post in Telegram dedicated to her friend's refusal of US citizenship. According to the editor-in-chief of RT, the girl supported the opposition and in 2013 immigrated to the United States, but after 4 years she decided to regain Russian citizenship. The TV journalist duplicated the information in Twitter.

In 2014, together with Tina Kandelaki and Simonyan, she became a guest of the program on Channel One.

Margarita constantly enters into polemics with foreign media. She managed to expose fake footage of the wounded boy Omran Daknish, which was used as evidence of Russian aggression in Syria. The boy's father revealed the truth in an interview with RT.

The TV journalist has repeatedly become a guest of the studio of a popular political observer. At the beginning of 2018, she gave a detailed interview, where, together with the TV presenter, she reflected on freedom of speech in Russia and in the West.

The scandal with the poisoning of the ex-intelligence officer, in which the British authorities appeared suspects - Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, received great publicity. Young people gave an interview to Margarita Simonyan, which she commented on the air of the radio "Echo of Moscow". The TV journalist stressed that she has no reason to trust these people, but she does not trust the Western special services either. The frames of the meeting, used as photos, were disassembled by users into memes.

Margarita Simonovna Simonyan. She was born on April 6, 1980 in Krasnodar. Russian journalist, TV presenter, screenwriter. Editor-in-chief of the Russia Today TV channel (since 2015), the Rossiya Segodnya agency (since 2013), the Sputnik agency (since 2014).

Father - Simon Sarkisovich Simonyan, was born and raised in Sverdlovsk, later his parents moved to Krasnodar. Ancestors come from Crimea, where they fled at the beginning of the 20th century from the Turkish genocide. He worked as a refrigerator repairman.

Mother is from Sochi, she sold flowers in the market.

Grandfather - Sarkis Simonyan, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. The family of my grandparents was repressed in 1944.

The younger sister is Alice.

Most of her relatives live in Adler.

Although Margarita's parents are pure-blooded Armenians, they, according to her, had an absolutely Russian family. Her parents speak Armenian, but in different dialects. Margarita herself does not speak Armenian at all. She visited Armenia when she was an adult for her business needs.

She graduated from the special school number 36 of the city of Krasnodar with in-depth study of foreign languages. In the tenth grade, she was sent on an exchange to New Hampshire (USA) to improve her English. After graduation, she entered and graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the Kuban State University and the School of Television Skills.

From February 1999 to January 2000 he was a correspondent for the Krasnodar TV and radio company. She worked as a war correspondent covering the Chechen conflict. In January 2000, for a series of military reports, she received the prize of the Union of Journalists of Kuban "For professional courage."

In May 2000, she received the prize of the II All-Russian competition of regional TV and radio companies for a report on Chechen children vacationing in Anapa. Appointed leading editor of information programs of the Krasnodar TRC.

In September 2000 she received a presidential scholarship.

In February 2001, she was appointed VGTRK's own correspondent in Rostov-on-Don. Then she became a special correspondent for Vesti. She covered the military clashes in the Kodori Gorge of Abkhazia. In the fall of 2002, she became a member of the presidential pool of journalists. In September 2004, she covered the terrorist act in Beslan.

Since the founding in 2005 of the first Russian news channel to broadcast 24/7 in English, Russia Today (now RT) has been its editor-in-chief. She took this post at the age of 25. Subsequently, she also became the editor-in-chief of the Arabic-speaking (Rusiya al-Yaum) and Spanish-speaking (RT Español) versions of RT.

In 2010 she published the book "To Moscow!" She said about her work: “This is a story about a country, about love and about provincial boys and girls born in the 1980s. We all dreamed of leaving for Moscow for a better life, and none of us knew that we had to be more careful in our desires. - they can come true. "

From April 2011 to February 2012 she led the weekly analytical program "What's going on?" on the REN TV channel. From October to November 2012 - the host of the weekly column "Point of View" at the Kommersant FM radio station. From February 17 to June 23, 2013, together with she was the host of the political talk show on the NTV channel "Iron Ladies".

In 2012 she played the role of a journalist in the melodrama Three Comrades.

Margarita Simonyan in the TV series "Three Comrades"

In 2012, she entered the list of the 100 most influential women in Russia, taking 33rd place in it. In 2013, she became one of the five most influential women in Russia in the field of media.

On December 31, 2013, the general director of the Rossiya Segodnya news agency, Dmitry Kiselev, appointed Margarita Simonyan as editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency, which also remained at the head of RT.

On November 10, 2014, she became editor-in-chief of the Sputnik news agency, affiliated with the Rossiya Segodnya MIA.

In 2014 she received the national award "Media Manager of Russia" for the successful conquest of the foreign audience by the RT TV channel. At the end of 2017, Margarita Simonyan was included by Forbes in the rating of the “100 most influential women in the world” and ranks 52nd.

Since 2013 he has been working as a screenwriter. She was the author of the script for the melodrama “The Sea. The mountains. Expanded clay ". In 2017 she was the screenwriter for the crime detective "Actress" with the lead role.

Social and political position of Margarita Simonyan

Since 2008 - a member of the Academy of Russian Television. Since 2010, he has been the Vice President of the National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters. Since June 2011 - Member of the Board of Directors of Channel One.

In 2010-2012 she was a member of the third composition of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.

In 2012, she was a member of the People's Headquarters (across Moscow) of a presidential candidate.

In August 2014, the Ukrainian National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting released a list of 49 journalists and TV executives in Russia who could be banned from entering Ukraine, which also included Simonyan. In May 2016, she was included in the sanctions list of Ukraine by President Petro Poroshenko, she was banned from entering Ukraine.

Until 2017 - Member of the Public Council at the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Moscow. Since 2017 - Member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

In January 2018, she was registered as a confidant of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections on March 18, 2018.

Growth of Margarita Simonyan: 160 centimeters.

Personal life of Margarita Simonyan:

She lived in a civil marriage with journalist and TV producer Andrei Blagodyrenko. They have been together since 2005. However, in the end, this relationship ended.

Since 2012, she has been in a relationship with the director. At the time of the beginning of their romance, Keosayan was married to an actress and had two daughters, but divorced in 2014.

In August 2013, the couple had a daughter, Maryana, and in September 2014, a son, Bagrat. At the end of 2018, it became known about Margarita's third pregnancy. October 19, 2019, which was named Maro.

The couple is in no hurry to formalize the marriage. : “I've always had a very wary attitude towards legal marriage. I have never been officially married, these are some kind of children's complexes, I saw enough in my childhood on women who are very unhappy in marriage. And I had a rejection. I somehow shocked my parents by declaring at the age of 12: "I will never marry."

The family owns a restaurant in the Krasnaya Polyana area in Sochi. Margarita said that she opened a restaurant there, fulfilling an old family dream. However, the restaurant business failed: “It happened a couple of days before the start of the Sochi Olympics, and whoever did not dine with us during these fabulous two weeks: Dmitry Kozak, Konstantin Ernst, Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Prokhorov, Andrey Malakhov, Yana Churikova ... But the Olympics ended, the guests left, but the restaurant stayed. It was built against the main rule of this business - not where there is high traffic, but right in the courtyard of the grandmother's house, where my mother was born and raised, and now her sisters, nephews and, Actually, my grandmother. The place is unfortunate - not in the mountains and not by the sea, on an old highway, which few people use now. In general, the restaurant has withered away, we are now trying to lease the building. "

Filmography of Margarita Simonyan:

2012 - Three comrades - journalist
2012 - Deadline (documentary)

Scripts by Margarita Simonyan:

2013 - Sea. The mountains. Expanded clay
2017 -

Bibliography of Margarita Simonyan:

2010 - To Moscow!

Margarita Simonyan's awards:

Medal "For Strengthening the Military Commonwealth" from the Russian Ministry of Defense (March 9, 2005)
- Order of Friendship (June 27, 2007) - for a great contribution to the development of national television and many years of fruitful work
- Order of Friendship (South Ossetia, December 25, 2008) - for objective coverage of events during the period of Georgia's armed aggression against South Ossetia in August 2008
- Commendation of the President of the Russian Federation (2010)
- Medal of Movses Khorenatsi (Armenia, November 18, 2010) - for a significant contribution to the development of the field of journalism and high professionalism
- Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV degree (2014) - "for objectivity in covering events in Crimea"

At 32, she became a journalist for the presidential pool, and at 35 - 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 fragments of the work "Train" along with culinary recipes were placed in the periodical "Russian Pioneer".

Biography

Margarita Simonovna was born in the family of a refrigerator repairman and a flower saleswoman in Krasnodar on April 6, 1980. Until the age of 10, the girl with her sister and parents lived in difficult conditions - the Soviet period of unemployment and empty counters, and there were absolutely no amenities in the house. When she was ten, the family got new housing.

The girl quickly mastered literacy and, even in kindergarten, gathered an audience of one-year-olds around her - she read fairy tales. Margarita was sent to school number 36 (with in-depth study of foreign languages). A capable student brought home only fives. 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 leads the graduate to the walls of the Kuban State University. At the same time, she is honing her TV skills with Vladimir Pozner himself (an iconic person in the media, he was the host of teleconferences between the United States and the USSR, he hosted a program about the Soviet Union in the States).

Margarita began her 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 trained and immediately decided to try her hand at being 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 the Professionalism and Courage Prize. During the same period, she received a responsible position - the editor of the television and radio company "Krasnodar". Immediately, Margarita Simonyan is offered work on other channels - VGTRK (as a correspondent), RTR. Since 2002, a talented and purposeful journalist has become a permanent member of the press who cover Kremlin events (a representative of the presidential pool).

In 2004, the journalist manages to report on the tragedy in Beslan.

In 2005, the Russia Today TV channel began broadcasting, which reflects the moods and opinions of politicians and the public about world events. The main character is Russia. The concept of the channel became an unspoken response to the Voice of America program, popular during the USSR period, which was the US “microphone” for the residents of the Union as well. Margarita Simonyan became the first editor-in-chief of the TV 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, more and more TV viewers are beginning to recognize Simonyan in the face - 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 media representative - Channel One.

Since 2013, a television celebrity - the head of Russia Today and editor-in-chief of MIA "Russia Today".

Her literary activity did not remain in the shadows either. 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 growing up of young people and their views is shown. Not without a love line (for example, between an attractive student Nora and her married adult lover). This modern prose shows that one feeling remains unchanged and always correct, no matter how trite it sounds, but actual - love for the Fatherland.

In the story "Train", readers will find interesting descriptions of portraits of the country's inhabitants, landscapes, once again take a different look at the familiar world of things.

In 2018, Margairita Simonyan became a confidant of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections.

Personal life

Despite the total employment, 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 doing work until the last, the journalist became the mother of the girl Maryana. After the opening of their own restaurant in Sochi, the head of Russia Today was seen in the company of the director, the ex-wife of Alena Khmelnitskaya - Tigran Keosayan. In 2014, they had a son in a civil marriage. Margarita Simonyan with her actual husband named him Bagrat.

Once Tigran Keosayan wrote to Margarita Simonyan on Facebook: “Hello, Margarita! This is Tigran Keosayan. I have long been sympathetic to you as a journalist and tribesman. Now I was driving in the car and listened to how they were harassing you on the radio, could not resist, decided to support and write ”.

At first, Margarita Simonyan did not believe that it was really Keosayan. She saw him on TV in a cooking show where he cooked scrambled eggs and tomatoes. Margarita answered him, exchanged phone numbers, met, had lunch. We had lunch, apparently, so tasty that I wanted to have lunch again. Yes, and have supper. Gradually overgrown with common themes, interests, friends, some kind of projects.

« And suddenly it turned out that it was impossible to live without each other - that you need to see each other every day, correspond every minute, hold hands, even when not around”, Recalls Simonyan.

« In general, all the most beautiful things in my life literally fall from the sky. And what I work on for a long time and hard either does not happen at all, or happens when it is no longer necessary", Adds the journalist. Her career - the position of editor-in-chief of an international television channel and the country's main news agency - also developed unexpectedly. She never aspired to become a big boss, on the contrary. I always wanted to write books, since childhood, as long as I can remember.


Tigran Keosayan taught Margarita to write scripts. Now, in traffic jams and at night, she writes scripts for films, TV series - sometimes under her own name, sometimes under a pseudonym. So Simonyan relaxes. " Not to mention the fact that they pay very well for it - definitely more than my salary on Russia Today", Specifies the chosen one of Keosayan.

She writes not only for Tigran. Together they made three series with him and just made a movie. Their comedy Sea. The mountains. Keramzit ”successfully passed on the First channel. This December on NTV - the premiere of the psychological thriller "Actress", another work that they created together with Tigran and Alena Khmelnitskaya.

Margarita wrote the script, Tigran filmed, and Alena played one of the main female roles. The whole group watched their trio warily and admiringly - how people manage to maintain good relations.


Margarita was born in Krasnodar, which was an abandoned province in the eighties. The family lived between the train station and the market, they had such a hut without any amenities. " My parents are purebred Armenians, while we have an absolutely Russian family. Father was born and raised in Sverdlovsk, and mother - in Sochi", Says Simonyan. Most of her relatives still live in Adler.

Simonyan never dreamed of television. She was going to write beautiful articles for various magazines. In 1998, Margarita graduated from the first year, and she published a collection of poems, and her TV company "Krasnodar" took on an internship. Leaving for Chechnya on the front line in bloody and crazy December 1999, when Grozny was only surrounded, for the first time in her life Simonyan deceived her parents.

After Chechnya, Margarita was noticed in Moscow. She became a freelance correspondent for several federal television channels. Her father bought her a worn-out "Oka", which was already ten years old, and he and the operator in this car roamed all over the south of Russia, Crimea, Abkhazia, Kalmykia and Ossetia, got their reports.

In his third year, when Simonyan was not yet twenty-one, the RTR channel - now called "Russia" - entrusted her to head its bureau. " I was twenty-two when Dobrodeev, the general director of the Rossiya TV channel, called and asked: “Choose, will you go to New York or Moscow?” I chose Moscow, of course. I immediately got into the presidential pool - it was a real "dream come true”, Recalls Simonyan.


At twenty-five, Margarita was appointed editor-in-chief of Russia Today, which then did not exist: she was to launch the first Russian international 24-hour news channel in English from scratch. She celebrated her first New Year in this capacity at work.

From an early age, Simonyan actually lived only by work. She never wanted to get married, she put off thinking about children until after thirty. " When novels happened, I immediately honestly told my boyfriend that this was not serious and most likely not for long - I just had no time", The journalist recalls.

« It seemed to me that a married woman is an unhappy and downtrodden creature: she was "made happy" with a white veil so that she could clean, wash, cook and endure her husband's betrayal. However, by the time I was thirty, I already had a long and completely family relationship - with a common life, ficus and plans for the future, but even then I was not going to get married.", Adds Margarita.

Then a tsunami by the name of Keosayan burst into her "understandable life." " Tigran and I tried many times to stop everything - no one wanted to hurt loved ones. But it didn't work out. The first time we parted "forever" for a whole day, the last - for twenty minutes”, Says Margarita.


Simonyan lived in a small cozy house, bought with a mortgage, in a wonderful village, which had only one drawback - it was located sixty-three kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road. " When Tigran arrived for the first time, he asked why I had no curtains.... Remembers Margarita. - She replied: “Because for the ones I want, I haven’t saved up yet". Keosayan was shocked. In his view, the head of the largest international media outlet could not have such problems. It was in this house without curtains that he moved to live with her.

« Why do you say that you live near Moscow? You live near Volokolamsk! " - Tigran joked, making his way to Margarita's house in his luxurious Maserati. Of course, he left the mansion in Barvikha to Alena and their common children. Having already moved to Simonyan's house, every morning he dropped in there before work to have breakfast with his youngest daughter Ksyusha, and only then went to Mosfilm. Margarita strongly supported this. She even insisted if he was tired and wanted to sleep longer.

Tigran stopped going to Barvikha every morning, only when Alena had a new common-law husband, Sasha. In order not to create awkwardness. Ksyusha spends the weekend with them, she is friends with Margarita's children. Tigran took from his home only portraits and books of his father. And after the divorce, Alena remains a faithful friend and dear person, and a loving father to her daughters.


« When I found out that I was pregnant, I was shocked, sobbed for three months. Motherhood happened contrary to precautions, but there was almost one hundred percent threat of miscarriage. Doctors said: “If you want to endure, go to preservation, we will inject hormones”, Says Simonyan.

Margarita decided that she would not fight for her pregnancy or against: as God pleases, it will happen. As a result, Maryasha took root. Already five months after the first birth, Simonyan became pregnant with Bagrat. This time I didn't worry, I was delighted. " Pregnancy was very easy for me, both times I felt better than non-pregnant: I slept little, worked a lot and vigorously, not a day of toxicosis, gave birth for the first time in two and a half hours, the second in an hour and a half. However, motherhood is still the hardest thing I've ever done.", Margarita admitted.

She spent a month with Maryasha Simonyan on maternity leave, but she still managed everything by phone and mail. I didn't sit with Bagrat at all. After being discharged from the hospital, the journalist took her son home and went to work - she was just being checked by the Accounts Chamber.

In general, the famous journalist is also an anxious mother, but she tries not to show this to children. Several times a day he calls the grandmothers home. Although he knows the schedule of his children every minute, and they have it Spartan: swimming by the hour, languages, yoga, drawing, Maryasha has dances, Bagrat has Thai boxing. And their food is Spartan, they still have not tried sweets and cakes, so they are absolutely indifferent to sweets and happily gnaw celery. Any cakes can lie on the table - children are not drawn to them, because they do not perceive them as food, but rather as decoration. They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, cereals, meat, seafood.

Tigran is a much more strict parent than Margarita. Raises children as adults, especially the only son. And he is three years old, he still does not understand when dad says that “I have to apologize for throwing an apple on the floor”, looks at dad with surprised eyes and smiles. However, Tigran is also strict with her daughters, in Margarita's opinion. But he also fools around with them, sings funny songs that he invents himself, tells fables.

Simonyan says she is a fan of preschool education and contracted it from Tatyana Yumasheva, Yeltsin's daughter. Maryasha and Bagrat speak five languages: Russian, Armenian, English, French and Chinese. Teachers - native speakers come to them every day. For children, this is just a game, they don't even know what they are learning. They sculpt, draw, walk, sing, watch cartoons - it just happens in different languages.

« I would not like my children to study abroad. For selfish reasons. They will master the languages ​​already by the first grade, and I am not ready to live with them in different countries so that they grow up as carriers of a culture that is foreign to me. I am not a person of the world, I am very attached to my native place and I want my children to be nearby too. We have seen many families where parents wonder why their child grew up as a foreign, incomprehensible, arrogant English aristocrat or an equally arrogant Swiss socialist. And the heir at the age of twelve was sent to London to college - how was he supposed to grow up?", Says Margarita.


Tigran did not object to his eldest daughter when she wanted to study at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, but he was terribly worried all these years. In the end, she and Alena were already very angry with themselves for sending their daughter to the other end of the world with their own hands. Fortunately for them, she did not stay there. Received a diploma - and returned. Now the clever and beautiful Sasha works with his father, she was the second director in his new film, the plot of which unfolds against the background of the construction of the Crimean bridge.

Last summer, at Ksyusha's birthday - she turned six - Margarita met Alena. A few days before the holiday, Tigran said: “ Alena invites us to come together. -Of course, take the children and go with them. - You did not understand. She wants to see you too».
Margarita thought that Tigran had misunderstood something in his directorial absent-mindedness. Alenin asked him for the number, wrote to her: “ Alena, hello! Tigran said that you are waiting for us all together. This is true? I don't want to embarrass anyone, especially at a children's party". Alena replied: “ C'mon! Come! There will be no problem. Have a great fun».

There were about forty guests. It was just wonderful. Margarita and Alena both took a glass when the children had already been taken away, and they sat together until morning. Tigran could not stand it, fell asleep on the lawn, periodically woke up and whined: “ Girls, maybe that's enough? Oh please! I want to go home!»

At the holiday, Margarita and Alena made a joint photo and posted it on the Internet with the caption "High relations". " She is charming, very kind, intelligent, open - not to mention that she is a phenomenal beauty. We have nothing to share: Alena is happy, I am happy, Tigran is happy. And thank God", Margarita admits.

Margarita and Tigran do not hang out and rarely go to premieres or events. And they hardly go to visit - they accept friends at home. On Sundays, the tables of fifteen courses are often rolled up, Margarita loves this very much. She, of course, is helped by both mothers and their au pair. Maryasha is already helping to cook. I learned how to cut cucumbers with a small children's knife, I'm terribly proud of that.

« Looking at my children, I am convinced that people are born with a certain set of traits. Maryana is as ambitious as I was. At four years old, she cries for half a day if she could not read a word or recite a rhyme by heart. And the three-year-old son is not worried at all. They sit down at the table, Maryasha shouts: “I am the first, because I was born first! - Okay, I'm the second", - Bagrat smiles.

On the first of January, Keosayan and Simonyan always have an open door hash. All night Margarita with her mother and mother-in-law cooks this famous Armenian anti-hangover dish from boiled beef hooves. To be honest, khash is generally brewed by itself, but they keep an eye on it. All friends know that they can come to them without a special invitation, starting at one in the afternoon. So it was in the house of Margarita's parents, so it was in the house of Tigran's parents, now it is so with them.


Tigran, of course, spoils his wife, teaches her to expensive things and five-star hotels. When they met, Margarita was already over thirty, she had long been a big boss with a good salary, but everything was scattered into mortgages, loans, numerous relatives.

« I will never forget his first gift. I liked the bag of a famous brand, not prohibitively expensive, but still prodigally expensive for me. Passing the boutique, I admired her in the window. Once Tigran caught my eye: - Do you like this bag?", Says the journalist.

Tigran secretly bought it and presented it to his wife. " So I, as a child, slept with her for several days - I laid her on the pillow, I could not take my eyes off. I still wear it”, Recalls Margarita.

Keosayan and Simonyan have not yet registered a relationship, they simply do not get their hands on it. " Recently joked about this at home tells Margarita to the "Caravan of stories" - decided that, probably, we will get married when the children grow up, so that we can sit at a common table with their parents, drink homemade wine from grapes planted by my grandfather, eat dolma according to Tigran's mother's recipe and say: “What fellows you are, ancestors, what once they decided on all this!»