The Birth of a Propagandist. How TV Host Vladimir Solovyov Died to Journalism

It all began even before the war and before Crimea – during the Pussy Riot trial in August 2012. After this case, dissent against the authorities in Russia was finally equated with a crime, and political protest with sacrilege. The members of the punk group staged a brief performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior – it was a protest against the alliance of church and state, a punk prayer calling on the Virgin Mary to “expel Putin.” The action lasted less than a minute. Three participants – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich – were charged with hooliganism motivated by “religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison.

At that time, I found myself at the Khamovnichesky Court building on the day of the verdict – as an ordinary person outraged by injustice. I was photographing the events, expressing support for those who dared to challenge the regime, and even got into an argument with a group of men dressed in Cossack uniforms who were making aggressive remarks toward the protesters.

During those days, I wrote extensively about the case on Twitter and openly debated with those who supported the atmosphere of hatred toward Pussy Riot. Among them was Vladimir Solovyov. I tried to convey the essence of the problem to him, but he ignored my arguments and began discussing my tattoo – a stylized Celtic “tree of life” on my forearm. The brief discussion ended with him publicly telling me to “go see a spiritual advisor.”

I recalled this story a few days ago when the FSB reported an assassination attempt on Vladimir Solovyov. The alleged perpetrator is a resident of the Ulyanovsk region, suspected by the security service of cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence and preparing a terrorist act. In 2022, the FSB reported a foiled “plot” by Ukrainian nationalists against Solovyov with a similar scenario. It is difficult to judge whether these threats are real. But even if this is truly a provocation by the security services, the choice of Solovyov as a target seems logical.

From Physicist and Liberal to “Kremlin Mouthpiece”

Vladimir Solovyov was born in 1963 in Moscow to a family of teachers. He earned a Candidate of Economic Sciences degree. He taught physics, gave lectures even in the USA, and worked in business. In the late 1990s, he entered the media: first on the radio station “Silver Rain,” then on the NTV channel, where he hosted political programs. He was surrounded by journalists of a liberal mindset, and he himself criticized the authorities. After the Kremlin took over NTV in 2001, Solovyov not only called this a “litmus test of the crisis,” but also said that “soon in our country they will look for those who sympathized with NTV” and even received offers from Boris Berezovsky to lead an opposition party. Back then, I couldn’t help but respect that Solovyov—the man and the journalist.

After the destruction of independent media in 2003, his show was canceled, but later he returned to the state channel “Russia-1” and became the face of propagandistic talk shows: “Duel,” “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov,” and the radio program “Full Contact.” There were no longer different points of view—only one. Propagandistic.

In a recent interview with Boris Korchevnikov, Solovyov stated: “The person who was a man of peace has died... Cheerful, full-bodied, regularly losing weight, who adored traveling to Italy, America, England. Who thought everything would be fine. And a new person was born—a person of war.” It is worth noting that the US State Department called him “possibly the most energetic Kremlin propagandist,” but later (in 2025, under Trump) the article about him was removed from the site. The internet, however, remembers everything.

It was that “cheerful, full-bodied, Italy-traveling” Solovyov who bought villas on Lake Como—the first one back in 2013. He was the one who received from Putin the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”—allegedly for objective coverage of the annexation of Crimea. He became one of the mouthpieces of the war, whose rhetoric from the screens radicalized the audience and turned politics into literal religious fanaticism. However, in 2019, Italian authorities seized his property, and in 2022 he was finally placed under EU sanctions.

Preaching Hatred

But it’s not just about hypocrisy. It’s about how he speaks. Solovyov’s speech has become a weapon: he consistently brands Ukrainians and their leadership as “Nazis,” fueling hatred and justifying the war. He openly calls for violence against the neighboring country: during the height of the fighting, Solovyov demanded that the Russian army wipe off the face of the earth peaceful Ukrainian cities—Kharkiv, Odessa, Mykolaiv—giving residents three days to evacuate, then “demolish them block by block.”

By this logic, anyone who objects is a State Department agent or “possessed by demons.” In 2019, Solovyov called protesters in Yekaterinburg demons, and in 2022 he again described the city as a “city of demons twisted by the letter Z.” These expressions are not just insults but part of a system where criticism is labeled as evil and the individual as a bearer of vice. The rhetoric borders on sectarianism.

After the massacre in Bucha, the TV host publicly called the evidence of war crimes “fakes” and “lies.” He exonerated the killers in front of millions of viewers.

It’s no surprise that in the summer of 2024, a coalition of NGOs and lawyers filed a request with the International Criminal Court demanding an investigation into the actions of six key Russian propagandists, including Solovyov, for inciting hatred and possible incitement to genocide.

Once, Solovyov argued live with officials, invited opposition figures to the studio, and asked sharp questions to any interlocutors. Today, he doesn’t just comment—he recruits. Solovyov’s speech long ago lost any signs of analysis: it is a weapon aimed at one goal—to destroy opposing opinions, dissent, and sympathy. It is in this transformation—from media intellectual to herald of war—that the real tragedy lies. And the reason millions no longer see him as a person.

For me, Vladimir Solovyov remained the one who once couldn’t endure a debate and switched to the tattoo. From the very moment he sent me “to the spiritual advisor,” it became clear: he is not a political scientist, not an analyst, not a journalist. He is a priest. But a priest not of peace, but of war. He doesn’t just justify violence—he preaches it.