The Kremlin has begun to invest significantly more resources into disseminating propaganda.

While the Russian economy is plunging into recession, the salaries of Russian propagandists have increased significantly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For example, Olga Skabeeva and Yevgeny Popov recently purchased a $1.89 million mansion in the Moscow region, according to The Insider .

Russian journalists have discovered that propagandist Olga Skabeeva’s monthly salary is approximately 1.85 million rubles (approximately $23,300). According to publicly available data, she earned almost $16,000 per month in 2021.

The publication added that Skabeeva’s husband, Evgeny Popov, who is also a member of the Russian State Duma, declared an income of 18.2 million rubles (almost $229,000) for 2021. Currently, the Rossiya television channel pays him an average of 1.3 million rubles per month (around $16,000), and also earns a salary of approximately 500,000 rubles from the State Duma. He also receives periodic contributions from the Znaniya Society, where he is a lecturer, and the WildJam advertising agency.

Moreover, it wasn’t just the propagandists who enriched themselves during the war. The assets of Oleg Dobrodeyev, head of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) media holding, are estimated at billions of dollars.

According to the publication, Dobrodeev’s official salary is only 690,000 rubles per month (approximately $8,700), lower than the salaries of Skabeeva and Popov. Nevertheless, the head of VGTRK receives payments of 15 million rubles (approximately $189,000) from National Advertising Alliance LLC approximately once a quarter. Channel One CEO Konstantin Ernst also receives a similar payment every few months.Read also:

Journalists also discovered that NTV channel CEO Alexei Zemskoy received an average of 17 million rubles per month (approximately $214,000) over the past year.

(c)UNIAN 2025