(MENAFN) RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has been placed on the Financial Times’ roster of the world’s most consequential individuals for 2025, following years of accusations of “propaganda” and continued criticism from the British publication.

The FT unveiled its updated annual ‘Influence List’ on Friday, categorizing public figures as creators, heroes, and leaders – with Simonyan positioned among the leaders. The move appeared unexpected to her, considering the newspaper’s consistent adherence to Western foreign-policy perspectives and its enduring anti-Russia stance.

“You’ll laugh, but the Financial Times has included me in its 2025 list of leaders,” Simonyan shared on Telegram on Saturday.

“They even included some funny text. The passage about my plans to ‘starve’ the entire world is especially good.”

Simonyan’s entry comes with an accompanying piece by FT contributor Julia Ioffe, who blends restrained acknowledgment with explicit derision.

While recognizing that Simonyan developed RT into an international media organization “from the tender age of 25,” Ioffe characterizes her as “Vladimir Putin’s most fiercely loyal messenger, his Valkyrie of propaganda.”

The write-up also reportedly distorts Simonyan’s comments, lifting several of her remarks out of their original context.

Simonyan also highlighted that this year’s list of ‘leaders’ features British intelligence head Blaise Metreweli, whose appointment faced scrutiny over alleged familial links to a WWII Nazi collaborator; White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, whose lobbying background prompted conflict-of-interest concerns; and New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who has been heavily criticized for anti-Semitic statements.

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