Official position/function regarding the conflict

Gabrelyanov is a media tycoon close to the Kremlin, founder and Director General of the News Media publishing house, which owns the tabloid media Life, Mash, WarGonzo, etc. From 2011 to 2016, he was the Chair of the Board of Izvestia newspaper.

Gabrelyanov always tried to emphasize his loyalty to the authorities. He said, for example, that “no tabloid in the world can be unpatriotic,” “The President, Prime Minister and Patriarch of All Russia are three forbidden topics, because they cannot be criticized.”

Interests/goals in the conflict region

Gabrelyanov is a typical pro-Putin publisher and owner of a media outlet, dependent on the Presidential Administration and contacts with the officials, for whom the concept of freedom of speech is not applicable. Life.ru and other media outlets of Gabrelyanov are non-free media that serve the interests of the Kremlin and perform its tasks.

Gabrelyanov repeatedly spoke extremely aggressively and impartially against the Ukrainian authorities, supporters of the Maidan, and always emphasized his full support for Russia’s policy towards Ukraine. The close and direct cooperation of Gabrelyanov’s media with the Presidential Administration was confirmed by the publication in 2016 of materials of his personal correspondence, which were exposed by hackers of Anonymous International. Namely, it was revealed that the outlets Izvestia and LIFE posted paid materials upon guidance of the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Alexei Gromov, coordinating their texts directly with Gabrelyanov.

Actions in relation to the conflict

In April 2014, Gabrelyanov closed the Ukrainian edition of the newspaper Life, as its journalists refused to publish materials under the titles “Protect Us, Russia,” “Russia, SOS,” and “Neo-Bandera’s Dictatorship”.

Since Euromaidan, his media outlets have been describing in an extremely tendentious manner the events taking place in Ukraine and in the area of ​​the armed conflict. The most irreconcilable anti-Ukrainian authors such as Zakhar Prilepin, Semyon Pegov, and Andrey Babitsky are published on the pages of his media.

Examples of headers from Life.ru:

• “Poklonskaya: Heavenly Hundred of the Maidan are devils from the ashes” (21 November  2016);
• “Schizophrenia Country: Ukraine parasitizes on the remnants of technology – and this infuriates the United States” (18 August 2018).

Since May 2016, Gabrelyanov has been on the list of Ukraine’s personal sanctions against Russian propagandists.