Media: Simonyan Has Been Diagnosed With Cancer

The propagandist may leave her post as RT's editor-in-chief.

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya media group and RT television channel, told the program "Evening with Vladimir Solovyov" on September 7 that doctors had diagnosed her with a "terrible, serious" illness. She stated that she would have to undergo surgery and pointed to the left side of her chest with her hand. "I felt that I was obliged to come on air today and tell the truth, because it is always better to tell the truth ourselves than to let the audience feed on rumors," she said. Simonyan later made it clear that she was talking about a mastectomy: "When we remember the girls from the Young Guard who knew that they would have their breasts cut off alive - not like me, under anesthesia..."

45-year-old Margarita Simonyan did not specify what disease the doctors had diagnosed. A media market source close to Simonyan told The Moscow Times that she has been diagnosed with cancer and has very serious health problems. According to the source, the issue of her continued work at Russia Today is being decided and the option of her leaving is being considered.

Simonian heads the Rossiya Segodnya media holding, which includes the RIA Novosti news agency as well as the RT television channel, one of the Kremlin's key propaganda tools aimed at foreign audiences. The channel's budget is entirely funded by the state. In 2025, according to the budget law, RT's funding will amount to 31.1 billion rubles. The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RIA Novosti, Russia Today, Simonyan herself and her colleagues.

Simonyan's husband, director Tigran Keosayan, has been in a coma for nine months without improvement. This was reported by the RT chief herself in her Telegram channel. Keosayan survived clinical death in January 2025. Keosayan, 59, is known as the director of the films "Poor Sasha," "Lily of the Valley" and "Crimean Bridge," as well as a TV host of the propaganda programs "Evening with Tigran Keosayan" and "International Sawmill."

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