Simonyan and her "And?" - how the "best" media manager ruins Russian propaganda - and the Russians are asleep

In February of this year, Azerbaijan announced the closure of local branches of a number of foreign media outlets. Including the Azerbaijani branch of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik-Azerbaijan. The government's decision was final and irrevocable - to close the branch and leave the correspondent office with one journalist. The staff of the resource had already started receiving job offers when an order came from Moscow to stay in their places. They say that Sputnik Azerbaijan continues to work, but Baku's decision is just that.. Baku's decision. This is how knowledgeable people explain the reason that the publication continued to be published. The Rossiya Segodnya branch, whose editor-in-chief is Margarita Simonyan, lasted for another six months, and this time it was necessary to achieve compliance with the requirements of the host country with the participation of the police.

It's time for Margarita Simonyan to say her famous "And?" She says this "And?" whenever she has nothing to object to the interlocutor or it takes time to find an answer. Do you remember the old joke? The Jewish Congress has gathered with the agenda "Why do Jews answer a question with a question?" The Congress passed a resolution: "So what?"

RT's editor-in-chief probably thinks that with such a reaction she disarms her opponent and puts him in a dead end. "And?" Margarita Simonyan attracted so much attention that she even got into Google. Artificial intelligence responds to a query like this: "Yes, Margarita Simonyan's favorite phrase is "And?" She often uses it to emphasize that the other person did not answer her question or did not provide a sufficient explanation. The phrase "And?" can be perceived as a requirement to continue thinking, clarify, or even as a challenge."

It seems that natural intelligence understands reality better than artificial intelligence, so we will not attribute this phrase to the manifestations of Ms. Simonyan's professionalism. Surely, in connection with the recent events between Azerbaijan and Russia, she remembered that there is not only the letter "I" in the Russian alphabet. But this knowledge of the alphabet will not help to change the situation.

Margarita Simonyan's name often appears in the Azerbaijani media. She was once a military journalist and featured in reports from hot spots in Chechnya, Crimea, and Abkhazia. At that time, the Azerbaijani media was not interested in her identity. Contrary to the opinion imposed by the Armenian propaganda, in Azerbaijan they do not cling to everyone with a surname ending in "jan". Simonyan came to the attention when she headed MIA Rossiya Segodnya and the RT TV channel as editor-in-chief and became closely involved in propaganda. She is also a member of the Board of directors of Channel One (which explains a lot) and has been awarded the Grand Prix of the national Media Business Award "Media Manager of Russia" more than once. Simonyan is considered a cool media manager. But this is in the opinion of outside observers and support groups. And those who are, as they say, in the topic, speak about it in a completely different way. We'll talk about this later.

In the meantime, let's remind you that the predecessor of Rossiya Segodnya was RIA Novosti. This news agency had 80 foreign bureaus and correspondent offices, more than 1,500 subscribers in the CIS countries and about 100 abroad. The RIA bureau also existed in our country. Novosti-Azerbaijan regularly performed its function as a news agency, tried to adhere to objectivity, the then leadership was not noticed in anti-Azerbaijani activities and scandals. Everything changed after RIA Novosti was transformed into MIA Rossiya Segodnya. Despite the liquidation of RIA Novosti, the domain with that name and the brand itself continue to be used by the Simonyan office.

The transformed resource was designated as Russia's main propaganda weapon against the West. These are not our words. These are the words of former RIA editor-in-chief Svetlana Mironyuk, expressed in 2015 in an interview with Forbes. In her resignation at the end of 2013, Mironyuk accused the former head of Gazprom Media holding and former press Minister Mikhail Lesin and first deputy head of the presidential administration Alexei Gromov. Lesin has already retired from the political arena, and Gromov still continues to define the foundations of propaganda in the northern power.

The decree on the liquidation of the RIA Novosti news agency was signed in December 2013, and MIA Rossiya Segodnya received new heads. TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov was appointed CEO, and Margarita Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief.

Since that moment, Russia's main news agency has transformed from a news resource into a propaganda tool. And Azerbaijan, as a country that has suffered greatly from Margarita Simonyan's highly regarded propaganda talents in the Kremlin, has the moral right to speak negatively about this. Every country has the right to promote propaganda in its national interests, but propaganda must also have real foundations. And, according to Russian sources, Simonyan received her numerous state awards not for her ability to accurately hit the target, but for her creative approach to reality.

Let's hear what Alexey Kovalev, the former head of the RIA-Novosti department, says. In his Medium Noodle Shop blog, he wrote: "But what I really dislike and despise Margarita Simonyan for is her duplicity, hypocrisy and constant lies. Margarita is an extremely intelligent person with a well-adjusted moral compass. It's just a pity, he's pointing in the wrong direction. Margarita is very fond of lecturing on journalistic ethics in every interview, both to her Russian and Western colleagues. The problem is that all her moralizing is primarily about herself. And she lies all the time. I've already written so much about it, and she keeps going on, it's just some kind of mania... I know she's lying, she knows I know, and so on. And he continues as if nothing had happened. Take any of her interviews, TV broadcasts, or comments - there will definitely be a ton of lies, and the most primitive ones, which are refuted by an elementary Google search."

Well, how can you argue with this opinion? Simonyan herself would probably have retorted with her signature "And?", but this would hardly have helped smooth out the aftertaste of the opinion expressed by her Russian counterpart.

For example, in 2014 there was such a case. In the program Truthseeker ("Truth Seeker") on RT Europe, a story was shown about how the Ukrainian leadership treats residents of the east of the country. After this broadcast, a number of viewers contacted the British organization Ofcom with a complaint that there were no attempts to maintain objectivity on the air and monstrous and wild statements were made. What is it about. The fact is that the following has passed in the credits on the Simonyan resource: "eyewitnesses: the Kiev army is literally crucifying babies in captured cities and forcing their mothers to watch." However, no evidence has been demonstrated. Such outright lies caused outrage among the European audience. And this is just one of the many facts.

I must say that the thinking part of the Russian audience has also never associated Margarita Simonyan with her status as a media management genius. Her name was associated with scandals in which this self-confident madam found herself more than once.  Moreover, Simonyan enjoys such negative popularity that not a single one of her tricks goes unnoticed by the public. So, since 2013, she has been given the nickname "beaver-eaters". She said on social media that she was going to boil a beaver's head with "carrots and bay leaves." Social networks are social networks - you never know who will write some nonsense. But Simonyan is not "you never know", but the leading propagandist of a huge power, a person close to the first person of the country, and she should choose her words. Such a visionary lady, who "predicted" Russia's victory over Ukraine in two days, should have foreseen the consequences of her culinary exploits. Which, most likely, were also lies and a banal PR trick. If someone else had cooked beaver, no one would have noticed, but Simonyan, after this post on the social network, "X" began to be called nothing else than 2bobroedka." And the comments under the post are just tin. Summarizing, we note that she was advised to "eat her own head full of garbage."

Or let us recall how in March 2023, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan proposed to produce a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere at an altitude of 100 km above Siberia as a weapon test. According to the Newspaper.EN, the crazy idea was presented by her personally in her program "CHTD". Any normal person immediately has a question: "what kind of nonsense is this?" Normal people don't understand anything. Simonyan's idea was aimed at eliminating the advantages of the West in the light of the war in Ukraine.

"If you make an explosion hundreds of kilometers away," nuclear winter will not happen, and no one will die from cancer, but all radio electronics and all satellites will fail," said the editor-in-chief, who believes that the "nuclear ultimatum" will be the key to resolving the military conflict in Ukraine.

Again, if some ordinary propagandist had said that, they would have laughed, that's all. But everyone knows what Simonyan's status is and what circles she has unfettered access to. Therefore, the journalists had doubts, and the authorities had to answer the relevant questions. In the Kremlin, according to the Newspaper.EN, the idea of a nuclear test over Siberia was rejected. According to Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of Russia, such discussions are impossible. As Peskov stressed, Russia did not withdraw from the agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear tests. In addition, he urged not to forget that Simonyan does not work in the Russian authorities and does not reflect the official position of Moscow.

If you pay attention, there is a lot in common with the traditional Armenian propaganda. Unsubstantiated innuendos, outright fake constructions, and a violent fantasy designed to appeal to the audience's emotions.

As you know, Simonyan's resources have been expelled from most Western countries for activities far from news. Last year, the United States imposed additional sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group and Margarita Simonyan. The new restrictive measures also affected the media group's subsidiaries (including RIA Novosti, RT, Ruptly and Sputnik), RT's editor-in-chief and a number of other top managers of Rossiya Segodnya . Sanctions against Simonyan were imposed for "interfering in the 2024 elections and spreading disinformation." Previously, Margarita Simonyan had already been sanctioned only by the European Union, Great Britain and other Western countries.

Simonyan is very proud of this. She considers herself the main expert on anti-Western propaganda, but carries out this "responsible" work, as always, unprofessionally and ineffectively. The effect of such propaganda is to stupefy the masses and destroy Russia's relations with other countries.

Russian journalist, political scientist, publicist of Ukrainian origin. Alexander Rogers wrote after one of Simonyan's quirks, who spoke about the US plans for Ukraine as follows: "I don't know why, but I know that it's in vain."

"With this phrase, I can comment on the very appointment of Simonyan to the post of RT editor-in-chief," he wrote in LiveJournal Rogers.

"Who appointed her there? What for? Why? And it's absolutely for nothing. She's a fool! Absolutely useless! Who are you to evaluate this? Are you the president's press service? Are you a representative of the Foreign Ministry? Who are you that your particularly valuable opinion should be voiced by the largest state-owned media holding in the Empire? And this is presented as a separate "news" by the whole RIA Novosti. That is, it wasn't enough for Rita to ruin RT, so now she has completely decided to ruin Rossia Segodnya...

Journalism is about FACTS, not emotions. And... Rita reacts to everything with emotions. Do you remember her famous "And?" (I'll always remember it to her!) So, the mouthpiece of state propaganda should ANSWER such questions, not ask them...

Who watches RT at all? I don't know anyone like that. Can anyone name their three highest-rated programs? Apart from some kind of "bububu" I can't remember anything at all... Where are their methods of penetrating the Western information space? Where are the results of their activities? So remind me, why do we need Margarita Simonyan? "I don't know why, but I know it's for nothing," a Russian journalist wrote on LiveJournal.

Perhaps this is the end of the portrait of the "dinosaur" of Russian media management Margarita Sipmonyan, because we still will not be able to describe her "virtues" better than her Russian colleagues.