SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

L’immagine aziendale serve la duplice funzione di strumento di comunicazione interno ed esterno. Deve motivare i dipendenti e fornirgli l’orientamento necessario. Questo modello da perseguire viene a crearsi proprio grazie alla definizione della mission e della vision, e dai valori che da esse scaturiscono.

GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Mission evisionesempi

La mission e la vision aziendale creano un terreno fertile sul quale l’azienda si basa. Perché questo si verifichi, i dipendenti devono essere in grado di comprendere la mission e la vision. Anche se si sceglie di adottare una formulazione del pensare in grande per quanto riguarda il vision statement, l’obiettivo deve apparire realizzabile. Solo in questo modo vi sarà possibile motivare i dipendenti e invitarli a lavorare per la realizzazione dell’obiettivo condiviso.

Nel processo di creazione di una nuova realtà imprenditoriale, come prima cosa gli imprenditori mettono per iscritto il business plan. Così sarà possibile valutare l’effettiva realizzabilità dell’idea. Allo stesso tempo, il business plan serve come tabella di marcia e documento informativo. Anche qui gli imprenditori devono rispondere alle domande relative a qual è lo scopo che la loro azienda intende perseguire e qual è l’obiettivo da raggiungere. Dunque, il mission e il vision statement servono anche da base per il vostro business plan.

Al momento della creazione dell’azienda può capitare che ci sia confusione attorno al mission statement e al vision statement e alle loro differenze. Seppure la posizione adottata in entrambi è molto simile, ci sono delle differenze che permettono di distinguere tra i due. Diventa quindi fondamentale capire cosa si nasconda dietro ciascuno di questi concetti, prima di poter procedere.

SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

France's president accused the English-language news channel RT — which is funded by the Russian government — of "deceitful propaganda." David Greene talks to RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.

Dropbox, Airbnb e Twitter, aziende di successo con una cosa in comune: le idee del metodo lean startup. Il modello mette in discussione i concetti e le procedure aziendali tradizionali e promette maggiore flessibilità e forza innovativa. Ma cosa significa lean startup per lo…

GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

LinkedIn: To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. (Connettere i professionisti di tutto il mondo per renderli più produttivi e fargli raggiungere il successo.)

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Google: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. (Organizzare le informazioni di tutto il mondo e renderle fruibili e utili.)

GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

LinkedIn: To create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. (Creare opportunità economiche per ogni membro della forza lavoro globale.)

GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Mission evisionCoca Cola

SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Mission,visione valori aziendali

SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Mission e vision altro non sono che elementi per comprendere l’identità di un’azienda. Servono a comunicare l’obiettivo che l’azienda intende raggiungere e quali sono i traguardi prefissati. Particolarmente importanti sono mission e vision aziendale al momento della creazione dell’impresa.

GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Google: To provide access to the world’s information in one click. (Fornire accesso alle informazioni mondiali in un solo clic.)

SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Mission,visione valori

Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Visione mission differenze

(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Il business plan riunisce tutte le informazioni rilevanti riguardo a pianificazione, strategie e mezzi finanziari e diventa un’utile tabella di marcia che guida all’attuazione del vostro progetto. Ma il business plan è anche importante per possibili istituti di credito che…

Il mission statement rispecchia dunque l’utilità dell’azienda (per cliente/collettività/ecc.) e il vision statement indica un obiettivo o uno stato da raggiungere con il lavoro. Ma capita che a volte questi due elementi si sovrappongano e si faccia così difficoltà a distinguerli l’uno dall’altro.

Visionmission valori esempi

SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Airbnb: Tapping into the universal human yearning to belong — the desire to feel welcomed, respected, and appreciated for who you are, no matter where you might be. (Sfruttare l’universale desiderio umano di appartenere, il desiderio di sentirsi benaccetto, rispettato, e apprezzato per chi sei, indipendentemente da dove ti trovi.)

Visiondefinizione

GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The investigation of Russian interference took our colleague David Greene to Moscow, and he's on the line. Who are you talking to, David?DAVID GREENE, HOST: Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Amazon: We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience. (Cerchiamo di offrire ai nostri clienti il prezzo più basso, la miglior selezione, e la massima convenienza possibili.)

GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Vision aziendaleesempi

GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Idealmente, sono gli imprenditori e i dirigenti d’azienda a prendersi cura dello sviluppo della vision e della mission aziendale. Tuttavia, questo non vuol dire che i dipendenti non possano o non debbano essere coinvolti. Una possibilità è quella di presentare loro le varie proposte redatte e lasciarli scegliere quella più calzante. D’altronde sono loro a poter realmente valutare se gli statement sono adeguati o meno, se loro stessi ci si identificano e se la formulazione risulta sufficientemente chiara. A questo proposito, nella fase precedente all’ideazione degli statement, si possono richiedere ai dipendenti input per una migliore definizione di mission e vision.

SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

La prima sfida consiste nel far sì che entrambe le dichiarazioni rappresentino l’obiettivo dell’azienda, la mission direttamente e la vision più indirettamente. Da evitare assolutamente è però una ripetizione. Idealmente il valore aggiunto si crea dal risultato di mission e vision aziendale assieme. Un’ulteriore difficoltà consiste nel fatto che entrambi gli statement indicano una via e, al contempo, devono servire da ispirazione. Tuttavia, c’è una differenza d’intensità. Se nel vision statement l’ispirazione è la priorità, il mission statement è ha maggiormente una funzione di orientamento. Per riuscire in questa difficile separazione dei compiti, potete utilizzare la seguente tabella indicativa:

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The investigation of Russian interference took our colleague David Greene to Moscow, and he's on the line. Who are you talking to, David?DAVID GREENE, HOST: Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Una volta definite mission e vision, possono essere estratti i valori fondamentali dell’azienda, che comprendono i principi su cui si basa l'azienda e li rappresentano in maniera credibile.

SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Amazon: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. (Essere l’azienda più cliente centrica della Terra, dove i clienti possono trovare e scoprire qualsiasi cosa potrebbero aver interesse a comprare online.)

GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The investigation of Russian interference took our colleague David Greene to Moscow, and he's on the line. Who are you talking to, David?DAVID GREENE, HOST: Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Come si delinea il futuro per i vostri prodotti e servizi? La matrice BCG è un semplice strumento che vi aiuta nelle decisioni: è meglio investire in un’unità di business oppure no? Vi spieghiamo il significato delle zone di questa matrice, chiamata anche matrice Boston, e vi…

GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Il mission statement è la base per il vision statement. La mission descrive l’obiettivo aziendale, da intendersi anche come motivazione che ha portato alla costituzione dell’azienda. La mission aziendale rende chiaro l’obiettivo che si prefigge l’azienda e quindi il contributo positivo che la stessa intende apportare a clienti e alla propria comunità o alla società in generale. Per la vostra azienda dovreste definire una mission possibilmente ampia, così da non limitare le possibilità dell’azienda.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The investigation of Russian interference took our colleague David Greene to Moscow, and he's on the line. Who are you talking to, David?DAVID GREENE, HOST: Well, Steve, one person I want to introduce you to is Margarita Simonyan. She is the editor-in-chief at RT. That's the English-language news channel that is of course funded by the Russian government...INSKEEP: Yeah.GREENE: ...And seen by many as just a propaganda machine. The latest criticism of RT came from French President Emmanuel Macron. He said RT engaged in what he called deceitful propaganda to support his election opponent, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Now, Margarita Simonyan - she said she's thinking of suing Macron for slandering her network. And she said RT was just trying to counter what she calls the mainstream media.MARGARITA SIMONYAN: All of the mainstream French media - all of them - were jumping out of their pants to make people vote for Macron - all of them. I can...GREENE: Well - and that's my question. Did you...SIMONYAN: ...Give you tons of examples.GREENE: But did that make it RT's role...SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Basandovi sul mission statement potete formulare il vostro vision statement, o meglio quello della vostra azienda (che poi dovrebbero coincidere). Questo stabilisce un obiettivo sul lungo periodo o una situazione auspicabile e rappresenta l’ideale al quale la vostra azienda mira. Gli obiettivi prefissati non dovrebbero però superare un periodo compreso tra i prossimi cinque o dieci anni. L’azienda cresce, raggiunge i propri obiettivi e ne definisce dei nuovi. Modificate la vostra vision aziendale, facendovi riflettere i cambiamenti registrati nella vostra azienda. La vision aziendale viene solitamente espressa in una frase, ben formulata e facile da capire, possibilmente risvegliando le emozioni di chi la legge.

GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SIMONYAN: But still, we are propaganda, and they're not.GREENE: So this really speaks to how Simonyan sees RT's role. She says the mainstream media has its own narrative about Russia that she needs to combat. And some say she is basically just taking orders directly from the Kremlin.Let me ask you about another issue that comes up frequently among your critics - that you have some sort of telephone in this office where you have a direct link to someone who works for Vladimir Putin and you have editorial discussions on that phone.SIMONYAN: I...GREENE: Does that phone exist? Is it somewhere in this office? Is it...SIMONYAN: Yeah, I have a phone. It's right here, which I use whenever I have to discuss something that is needed what is called secure line.GREENE: There's this narrative line that this is a secure line to the Kremlin.SIMONYAN: Just today, I talked on that line with the Russian central bank discussing some of the issues of RT finances that probably shouldn't be discussed on an open line. So...GREENE: Do you talk to people who work for Vladimir Putin on that line?SIMONYAN: See, (laughter) you don't want to listen to the answer, do you? You don't...GREENE: I do.SIMONYAN: ...Want to hear the answer.GREENE: I want to hear the answer.SIMONYAN: No, you don't. You want a statement that you can using use in your broadcast. I'm a journalist as well. All of the people who work in the Russian government and Russian presidential administration, in this way or another, work for Vladimir Putin. I talk to all sorts of people. Many times...GREENE: Well, let me ask the question in a more fair way. Do you ever make editorial decisions...SIMONYAN: We...GREENE: ...About the mission of RT and story decisions with people who are working very closely with Vladimir Putin?SIMONYAN: We never make editorial decisions with people who are working closely with Vladimir Putin, unless you consider myself a person who is working closely with Vladimir Putin. That, a lot of people actually would say so.GREENE: Would you say so?SIMONYAN: I wouldn't.GREENE: Do you have a relationship with him? I mean, are you friends? Are you...SIMONYAN: (Laughter) No, we're not friends. I know him. I've known him ever since I was 20 or 21 because I - just like you have White House pool, we have the Kremlin pool. And I used to be Kremlin pool correspondent, so we said hi to each other, you know. But I can't call him, if that's what you mean.GREENE: Do you have an opinion about him as president and his policies?SIMONYAN: I have tons of opinions about him as president and his policies. To understand Russia's fascination about Putin - and I think this is something that is completely not being understood in the West and in the mainstream media. And the reason why it's not being understood is because people didn't live here through the '90s.In a town like mine, I probably, at that time, wouldn't name a single person whom I personally knew who wanted to stay in Russia. Can you imagine that? All of the people I knew wanted to leave because we saw our country as something horrible, falling apart, that will only continue to fall apart. There were numerous wars going on. And then came Putin, and he stops all that. And we saw it in our lives. People around started - first of all, they stopped being hungry. Then they stopped having one pair of shoes for both my sister and me, you know, and wearing them in a row - and my mom. So for three of us (laughter), one pair of normal shoes - that all stopped. It all seemed magic.GREENE: Given those personal reflections and your life improving, I just think about...SIMONYAN: Not just mine - it's everybody I know. And when I'm saying - I want to underline this. It would be an extremely difficult task to find a single person who lived worse before Putin than now, very difficult.GREENE: You know, I think about the United States. And some of the proudest moments for news organizations in the U.S. have been when investigations have ended up confronting power. I mean, I think of Bill Clinton and the scandals that he got involved in, the reporting around that. I think of Richard Nixon and his ultimate resignation. If investigations revealed things about Vladimir Putin that could ultimately lead to him leaving office, would you be ready to carry out an investigation like that to its fullest here?SIMONYAN: If I saw and if I really sincerely thought that what Putin is doing is harmful for my country and for my people and it needs to be stopped, I wouldn't hesitate to do that.GREENE: This - that's not - I think you recognize this. That's not your image or RT's image on the outside.SIMONYAN: I understand that. I understand that. What are you going to do, you know, when the mainstream media, again and again and again, publish stories about us that are completely false? You know, that's the image. Why do they do that? You tell me. I don't know.GREENE: Thank you for this conversation.SIMONYAN: Thank you.GREENE: I really appreciate it.SIMONYAN: Thank you. It's good talking to you.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD")GREENE: Margarita Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of RT.(SOUNDBITE OF D.P. KAUFMAN'S "THE POEM YOUR GRANDFATHER TOLD") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.