How much the Kremlin pays propagandists and war correspondents who incite people to war

An investigation by "Vyorstka" shows how much Russian war correspondents, Z-bloggers, and TV presenters working for state war propaganda earn. The payment data was collected from Russian leaks.

A typical war correspondent for a state Russian TV channel receives 250-500 thousand rubles per month — approximately $3-6 thousand. For example, Grigory Udovin from VGTRK (All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company) receives about 435 thousand rubles ($5.2 thousand), and Irina Kuksenkova from Channel One — about 526 thousand ($6.3 thousand).

But for more well-known propagandists, the sums are significantly larger.

Yevgeny Poddubny — almost 1 million rubles ($12 thousand) per month, about 11 million rubles ($131 thousand) per year.

Mariana Naumova (known as Batkauna) — about 780 thousand rubles ($9.3 thousand) per month, $107 thousand per year.

Semyon Pegov, author of WarGonzo, — more than 2.5 million rubles ($30 thousand) per month. According to "Vyorstka"'s interlocutor, his real income could be even higher — tens of millions of rubles, including payments through individual entrepreneurs, self-employment, and cryptocurrency.

Boris Rozhin (Colonelcassad channel), who rarely visits the front, receives about 2.6 million rubles ($31 thousand) per month. At the same time, about 2 million rubles are transferred to him monthly by the company "Teleprofil", which is involved in producing Channel One programs.

Павялічыць

And the true records are held by television propagandists. Dmitry Symes received about 8 million rubles ($95 thousand) per month in 2025, and over almost four years on Channel One, he earned more than 291 million rubles — about $3.46 million at the current exchange rate.

Павялічыць

Artyom Sheinin, one of the most aggressive propagandists on Russian TV, receives about 5.6 million rubles ($67 thousand) per month and more than 60 million rubles ($714 thousand) per year.

And Nikita Mikhalkov earns more than 10 million rubles ($119 thousand) per month, or about $3.2 million per year, from his propaganda activities. In addition, his deposits hold over 2.5 billion rubles, which bring about 515 million rubles ($6.13 million) in interest per year.

According to "Vyorstka", the further a propagandist is from the front, the higher their income: Z-bloggers earn 2-3 times more than well-known war correspondents who go to the front, and the average annual income of TV presenters in the study is approximately three times higher than that of military propagandists.

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