She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT,[1][2][3] as well as the state-owned media group Rossiya Segodnya.

In 2022 and 2023, Simonyan was sanctioned by the European Union as "a central figure of the Russian Government propaganda".

[6] During World War II, they were deported by Stalin's NKVD secret police to the Urals along with thousands of other Hamshen Armenians.

[10] Simonyan, as a correspondent, covered the Second Chechen War, and also serious flooding of the Krasnodar region, for her local television station, receiving an award for "professional courage".

In 2002, she became a regional correspondent for Russia's national Rossiya television channel and covered the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis.

"[25] She later told The Moscow Times that RT started to grow once it became provocative and that controversy was vital to the station.

She stated that among English speaking channels, only RT was giving the South Ossetian side of the story.

[28] In April 2022, Simonyan proposed removing the article on the prohibition of censorship from the 1993 Russian Constitution.

[30][31] Speaking on Russian State television in April 2021, Simonyan said that in a 'full-scale war', Russia would defeat Ukraine 'in 2 days'.

"[35] On 23 February 2022, Simonyan was included in the European Union sanctions list for promoting "a positive attitude to the annexation of Crimea and the actions of separatists in Donbas."

[36][37] After the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, Simonyan expressed support for the invasion, including posting a Tweet saying that "This is a standard parade rehearsal, It's just that this year we decided to hold the parade in Kyiv," and mocking speculation that she would be targeted with further sanctions.

"[40] On Your Own Truth, presented by Roman Babayan on NTV on 26 March, Simonyan made multiple unsupported assertions, including a claim that Ukrainian doctors have called for Russian prisoners to be castrated and Ukrainian "Nazis" are "prepared to pluck children's eyes out based on their ethnicity.

[41] On 26 March, she said that to her "horror," a "considerable portion of the Ukrainian people have turned out to be engulfed in the madness of nazism.

"[43] Igor Albin, former Vice Governor of Saint Petersburg, wrote on his Telegram channel: "Crazy 'propagandists' will burn in hell.

[46] She asked Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev about Kazakhstan's position on the "special military operation" in Ukraine.

"[47] Simonyan believes that the 2022 food crisis, partly caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, will force the West to lift sanctions.

[48] Pointing to chaotic partial mobilization and reports of old, disabled or otherwise unfit men being drafted into the army, Simonyan complained why the "millions of security officers and guards" who are being used in Russia are not sent to the front.

She said the explosion would kill off all electronics and satellites, and return Russia to a gadget-free time like 1993 in which "we lived wonderfully".

Simonyan was strongly criticised by a number of Siberian politicians, and the Russian government distanced itself from her comments.

In response to the criticism, Simonyan backtracked, and said she had not suggested a nuclear strike on Russian territory.

[58] In 2022, Simonyan was sanctioned by the European Union as "a central figure of the Russian Government propaganda" responsible for "actions and policies which undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine".

[60][61] During the 2020 Armenian–Azerbaijani war, Simonyan accused the Armenian authorities of provoking Russia by arresting former-president Robert Kocharyan and refusing to recognize the annexation of Crimea.

"[64] Political commentator Sergey Parkhomenko also criticized her, saying that Simonyan is posing as "a powerful representative of the Armenian people, while not being such at all from any point of view.

As a result, I will cook a beaver's head with onions, carrots and lavrushka [bay leaf] for broth.

The rest of the meat will be marinated overnight in garlic, juniper berries and black pepper, tomorrow I will fry and therefore I will stew in broth until soft".

[68][75] Simonyan was formerly married to the journalist and producer Andrey Blagodyrenko, giving birth to the couple's daughter, Mariana, in August 2013.

[6] On 15 July 2023, TASS wrote that seven people were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kill Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak, a journalist and television host.