Vladimir Rudolfovich Solovyov (, born 20 October 1963) is a Russian TV presenter and propagandist. He has been an anchor on the television show Evening with Vladimir Solovyov on Russia-1 since 2012. He is one of the most famous news anchors in Russia, though he has become controversial internationally for his staunch nationalism, signature ad hominem attacks against both domestic political and international rivals, and frequent threats against NATO members, which have increased significantly since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
In 1990, Solovyov left for the United States to teach economics. There he actively participated in political life and started doing business. Upon his return to Russia in 1992, he continued to run his business. In 1997 Solovyov became a presenter on the Silver Rain Radio. In 1999, he was invited to the ORT TV channel, where, together with Alexander Gordon, he began to host the program "Process". At the same time he hosted the program "Passion for Solovyov" on TNT channel. From 2001 to 2003 Solovyov hosted the programs "Breakfast with Solovyov", "Night of Nightingale", "Duel" and "Look Who's Here!" on TV-6 and TVS.
In June 2003, Solovyov was hired by NTV, where he hosted the talk shows "Orange Juice", "To the Barrier!", and "Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov". Since 2004 Solovyov has published a number of books of artistic and journalistic nature, as well as recorded two music albums. He became a famous interviewer, and in 2005 he received the TEFI award in the relevant category. In the summer of 2010 Solovyov left Silver Rain Radio and moved to Vesti FM radio and Russia-1 TV channel, where he began hosting the talk show "Poyedinok".
Revealed by Anonymous International on 9 November 2015, Solovyov, Gazprom, Lukoil, Sergey Naryshkin, Igor Rudensky, Dmitri Pershin, Tikhon Shevkunov, and Alexei Kudrin are well connected through the government public relations specialist Alexey Ulyanov.
In March 2022, YouTube blocked his channel Solovyov Live. Since then, he was assigned the TV channel frequency of the news channel Euronews, which Russia banned after the invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the war, Solovyov has repeatedly pushed disinformation and conspiracy theories denigrating Ukraine and justifying the invasion and subsequent Russian war crimes. On air, he frequently calls for Ukraine and all of its allies to be destroyed. Due to this, he has been sanctioned by the European Union and United Kingdom.
Early life and education Vladimir Rudolfovich Solovyov was born on 20 October 1963, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His father, Rudolf Naumovich Solovyov, was a teacher of political economy and a boxing champion of Moscow. His mother, Inna Solomonovna Solovyova, worked as an art critic at the Battle of Borodino Museum.
Solovyov's parents met when they were students of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. They separated when Vladimir was four years old, but continued to maintain friendly relations. Solovyov's maternal grandfather, Solomon Lvovich Shapiro, was a participant in the Great Patriotic War (Russian term for the Eastern front of WWII) head of the flight test station (LIS), and a lieutenant colonel. His paternal grandfather, Naum Semyonovich Vinitskovsky, was also a participant in the Great Patriotic War and a holder of the Order of the Red Star.
Solovyov attended school No. 72 in Moscow for his first year of education. From the second grade onward, he studied at the elite special school No.. 27 with the study of a number of subjects in English, where the children and grandchildren of members of the Soviet Central Committee of the CPSU, diplomats, and other notable figures studied. This school is now known as secondary school No.. 1232 with in-depth study of the English language. At the age of 14, Solovyov was admitted to the Komsomol, the Communist Union of Youth.
In the ninth grade, Solovyov became interested in karate. Prior to that, he played football and trained at the Moscow Youth Football School. However, due to the need to practice karate at the same time, he was forced to give up football.
After finishing school, Vladimir Solovyov enrolled at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1980. He graduated with honors in 1986, after completing the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry. During his time at the institute, he studied alongside Vladislav Surkov and Mikhail Fridman, both of whom Solovyov had known since 1981.
After completing his degree, Solovyov worked as an expert in the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR from 1986 to 1988. During this time, he pursued writing in his spare time.
Between 1988 and 1990, Solovyov taught physics and maths in Moscow School No. 27. The language of his lessons was English, a common practice in Russian language-specialized schools.
Following his work in the Committee of Youth Organizations, Solovyov continued his education by enrolling in postgraduate studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He completed his studies at the institute and, in 1990, defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences. The dissertation was titled "The main trends in the production of new materials and the factors of efficiency of their use in the industry of the USA and Japan". His degree was awarded in the speciality of "the economy of the capitalist countries."
Career
In the early 1990s, Solovyov taught economics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, worked as a business consultant in the USA and was a vice president of the company that produced disco and parties equipment.
In 1999, Solovyov first appeared as a presenter on two TV talk shows: The Process on the ORT channel (with Alexander Gordon) (1999–2001) and Passion for Solovyov on the TNT channel (1999–2002). These were followed by his own projects Breakfast with Solovyov and Nightingale Night on TV6, the latter being the final show broadcast on the station before it was shut down in early 2002, as well as Look Who's Coming!, Duel on TVS and Orange Juice on NTV.
However, his main occupation from 1998 to 2010 was Nightingale Warbles, a morning show on Silver Rain Radio. Until late 2000s, Solovyov expressed opposition to Putin's course, but he endorsed his successor Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 and supported the Russian authorities ever since.
On New Year's Eve in 2013, the Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, future president of Ukraine, and the Russian comedian Maxim Galkin, who later spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine and fled Russia in 2022, performed together in a traditional New Year's program called Little Blue Light on the Russia-1 TV channel. Solovyov also appeared on the show as one of the presenters and danced in the audience during Zelenskyy's performance.
Since September 2018 Solovyov has hosted the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin. show on the channel Russia-1, in which for one hour he talks about the deeds done by the president over the past week. The intonation of the program, the selection of guests – in the premiere, they turned out to be only individuals connected with state power: the president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov and the State Duma deputy from United Russia Andrei Makarov - the co-host (VGTRK) journalist Pavel Zarubin, has prompted a number of media outlets to consider the show to be an attempt to raise the rating of Putin.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 23 February 2022, one day before the commencement of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Solovyov was sanctioned by the European Union and has been barred from entering the EU countries so long as the sanctions remain in force. All his EU domiciled assets have been frozen.
In the lead-up to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Solovyov claimed that Russia has "enough firepower for the full annihilation of the Ukrainian military infrastructure without an incursion of forces into Ukrainian territory. But we aren't preparing to do this." He later voiced support for the invasion, saying that "Today is the day that a righteous operation was launched for the de-Nazification in Ukraine."
On 27 February 2022, Solovyov said he had been placed on a list of international sanctions after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that his ownership of real estate at Lake Como was at risk. Later, on 5 March 2022, The Guardian wrote that the Financial Guard of Italy seized his villa, along with billionaire Alisher Usmanov's property. On 6 April 2022, his villa on the shores of Lake Como caught fire and was severely damaged, in what was probably an intentional fire.
In March 2022, Solovyov warned: "if you think we're going to stop with Ukraine, think 300 times, I will remind you that Ukraine is merely an intermediate stage in the provision of the safety of the Russian Federation." He accused Western-backed Ukrainian "Banderites" of attempting to assassinate him because he is a "Jewish anti-fascist."
As of March 2022, YouTube had blocked his channel Solovyov Live according to its three strikes policy. He then was assigned the TV frequency of the news channel Euronews, which was banned in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
On 20 April 2022, Solovyov talked on Russian state TV about a new stage of the war that started as part of the "special operation" against Ukraine. He said this new stage of war would be against "NATO's war machine and all its citizens", asserting that Russia "will show no mercy".
On 26 April 2022, while discussing the possibility of World War III and nuclear war with Solovyov on Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said, "Personally, I think that the most realistic way is the way of World War III, based on knowing us and our leader, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knowing how everything works around here, it's impossible—there is no chance—that we will give up…We're all going to die someday." Solovyov added, "But we will go to heaven, while they will simply croak."
Igor Albin, former Vice Governor of Saint Petersburg, wrote on his Telegram channel: "Crazy 'propagandists' will burn in hell. You don't scold your own in times of war, but you shouldn't be proud of them either. There will be no winners in a nuclear war!" In June 2022, Solovyov warned that the US–UK military shipments to Ukraine were seen by the Kremlin as an escalation of the conflict, saying that "I hope we'll live through this. If everything keeps progressing the way that it is, only a couple of mutants in Lake Baikal will survive; the rest will be destroyed in a massive nuclear strike."
On 13 May 2022, he complained that Russian troops were being sent to Ukraine with "hopelessly obsolete weapons." On 18 August 2022, he suggested attacking Berlin, Paris, London and Brussels using missiles.
On 5 October 2022, he said that some high-ranking Russian commanders should be shot by firing squad. The clip with fabricated satirical subtitles has been circulating online purporting to show Solovyov complaining about being drafted into the Russian army as part of Putin's partial mobilization.
On 8 October 2022, a fire broke out on the Crimean Bridge as a result of an explosion on the road part of the bridge. Solovyov urged retaliatory strikes across all Ukraine targeting "bridges, dams, railways, thermal power plants and other infrastructure facilities". He also called on Putin to reinstate Stalin's Soviet-era counter-intelligence agency SMERSH – whose motto was "Death to Spies" – to suppress any internal opposition to the war in Ukraine.
Towards the end of November 2022, Solovyov suggested that Russia should attack Norway, since the General Secretary of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, is a Norwegian. This was not taken very seriously in Norway.