Official position/function regarding the conflict

The TV presenter of the Russia-1 channel is one of the most famous Russian influencer propagandists. Solovyov is known for his extremely hostile attitude towards Ukraine and servile praise of the Russian government. He is the anchor of the broadcast “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” at Russia-1, makes documentaries about Putin and for several years was the only journalist to whom Putin gave long interviews.

Solovyov’s position in relation to Ukraine has changed several times over a certain period. “How many Ukrainian and Russian lives are you willing to claim in order to capture Crimea …?”, he asked even before all the events on the Maidan in early 2013. “We brought this day closer as we could. Crimea and Sevastopol are again part of Russia. Historical justice has triumphed!” (18 March 2014).

With regard to the conflict in Donbas, Solovyov took a quite definite position from the very beginning: “In Novorossia, anti-fascists are fighting against the fascists.”

Interests/goals in the conflict region

Since 2014, Solovyov’s TV broadcasts have been created and supervised by the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (see info about Alexey Gromov) in order to maintain and increase the rating of Vladimir Putin (which has been falling since 2017 no matter what), fanning the atmosphere of hatred towards Ukraine and its supporters in Russia (first of all, the Russian liberal opposition-minded intelligentsia). Solovyov also actively participates in fanning the “sieged fortress” myth beneficial for Kremlin when “everyone is enemies around” in order to mobilize society around the government.

Actions regarding the conflict

Since February 2014, Solovyov has been involved in justifying the capture of Crimea and military expansion against Ukraine and laundering the image of Russia, for which he was secretly awarded by the president “for objective reporting of events in Crimea” alongside 300 other employees of the Russian state media outlets. At the same time, Solovyov’s merits were especially noted – he received not a medal, like most of those awarded, but the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

Since 2014, during the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine, in particular, in Donbas, the social and political talk show “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” has turned from a weekly into a daily one, in order to more effectively cover the Russian population with anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

Solovyov became famous for aggressive attacks on speakers with an alternative position, not only verbal but also physical: there were fights in his studio, he kicked one Ukrainian speaker out of the studio right during the recording.