margarita simonyan
Margarita Simonyan, 37-year-old RT Editor-in-Chief, mother-of-two, and toppler of mighty regimes the world over.
On the January 6 episode of 60 Minutes, CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl 'interviewed' (or rather, attempted to frame) Margarita Simonyan, head of supposed global election-meddling behemoth RT.

Without even a whiff of irony (Stahl had freely traveled to 'the belly of the beast' in Moscow to conduct the interview), the 60 Minutes report managed to cram in every piece of fake intelligence on Russia thus far dished out to Western media by the 'US intelligence community'.

You can read a transcript of the brief exchanges here, but first watch Simonyan attempt to pierce Stahl's armor-plated reality-bubble:


As you can tell from the way 60 Minutes edited and narrated the 'interview', the purpose of Stahl's visit to RT HQ in Moscow was to execute another hit-job on Russia and Putin. Thanks to Simonyan's professionalism, the effect (on normal people anyway) was quite the opposite.

All Stahl really achieved was to expose herself and her deep state-funded employer as mere mouthpieces for the Establishment's agenda, derisively ignorant of concepts like context and fact-based evidence, and demonstrating that - man-to-man... excuse me, woman-to-woman - they are hopelessly outmatched by the wit and intelligence of Russian journalists like Simonyan and Russian media like RT.

cnn lies
There are, of course, no prizes for guessing what Stahl's lead topic was; Russia's 'interference' in the 2016 US presidential election. But no amount of careful editing by 60 Minutes' producers could twist Simonyan's simple truths in response to Stahl's second-hand lies:
Lesley Stahl: Let's talk about Russian interference in our election.

Margarita Simonyan: Uh-huh.

Lesley Stahl: Which our intelligence agencies tell us happened. And - I believe...

Margarita Simonyan: And you believe them. Just like you believe that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Didn't you believe that? Continue to believe that Russian interference in American elections happened. In five years, you will know that it didn't.
But the most interesting part of this interview was Simonyan's remarks about the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999:
Lesley Stahl: I get the impression though that your views of the United States have kinda curdled.

Margarita Simonyan: It didn't just happen to me. It happened to more or less all Russians in 1999 when you bombed Yugoslavia. We found that absolutely unfair, outrageous, illegal because it wasn't approved by the United Nations. It was a shock. America had Russia wrapped around its little pinky through the whole '90s. We did everything you told us. And we were eager to do more and more. The whole Russian nation was like, "Tell us what else we can do to please you. We want to be like you. We love you." And then in 1999, BAM! You bomb Yugoslavia. And that was the end of it. In one minute, in one day, that's when you lost us, unfortunately.
NATO bombing belgrade
American democracy comes to Europe in 1999: NATO 'shock-and-awe' in Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia before it was dismembered at gunpoint by Washington and London.
In one simple answer Simonyan summed up the entire backstory to why Russia decided to go its own way - to become a truly sovereign nation invested in a multi-polar world as opposed to a lackey for the 'exceptional nation', and to become cautious, as opposed to dutiful, about American diktats.

Something all Westerners need to get into their heads about Russians is that fairness and justice are more than just words to us. Sure we have psychos in our country, like anywhere else, but we are damned if we're going to sit back, do nothing and watch totalitarianism unfold all over again. By all means, go right ahead and experiment with the joys of implementing radical ideologies and 'world revolution', over there preferably, in your own back yard, but we are DONE with that.

Being family- and community-oriented, we Russians understand that the happiness of one is contingent on the happiness of others. Seeing our 'American idol' act so deceitfully and unfairly towards a country that is culturally close to us (and a European one at that) pulled the scales from our eyes and made us realize that 'the American Way' - certainly its modern expression anyway - is incompatible with the Russian psyche.

Later that same year of course, like a godsend, Putin became Prime Minister, and then президент (prezidient), and Russians got busy with rebuilding their country from the ashes.

I'll leave you with a cracking smack-down of the 60 Minutes hit-piece by RT America's Ed Schultz:


[PS. If you'd like to learn more about warrior woman Margarita Simonyan, her interesting background, and what drives her success, read this.]