The price of loyalty: Kremlin propaganda power couple Skabeeva and Popov have seen their incomes soar amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Hidden income and property

According to information obtained by The Insider, propagandist couple Olga Skabeeva and Yevgeny Popov recently bought property in the Novakhovo gated community just outside Moscow. On its official website, the exclusive settlement is described as an “aristocratic location.” The mansion, built in the style of classic Russian estates, is described as being “genetically close to the Russian elite.”

Skabeeva and Popov became the official owners of the property in August 2024. The Insider was able to find archived listings for the house. It was initially put on the market for 168 million rubles (just over $2.1 million), but the price eventually dropped to 150 million ($1.89 million). It boasts four bedrooms (each with its own bathroom), a swimming pool, and a wood-fired sauna.

The hosts of the talk show “60 Minutes” can indeed afford such an estate. According to yet more data reviewed by The Insider, Skabeeva’s current salary is 22.3 million a year (just over $280,000). She made 15.2 million rubles ($191,000) in 2021, the last time the couple’s income was publicly disclosed. In September of that year, Popov was “elected” to the State Duma as a candidate for the ruling United Russia party. After the start of the full-scale war, earnings data for the families of MPs was — conveniently — classified.

Ahead of the 2021 State Duma elections, Popov tried to conceal his real income and deny The Insider’s reporting about his high earnings. But in the end, even the Moscow City Election Commission accused the propagandist of manipulating the numbers.

After becoming a lawmaker, Popov declared income for 2021 in the amount of 18.2 million rubles (close to $230,000), and the nearly four years of war have seen that figure rise substantially. For his role on Kremlin-controlled domestic television, Popov still makes less than his wife — 15.6 million rubles annually ($197,000). On top of that, however, Popov also gets a State Duma salary of around 500,000 rubles a month ($75,000 annually) and receives occasional payments from the Znanie (“Knowledge”) society (where he is listed as a lecturer) and the advertising agency WildJam.

The life of Russia’s state TV bosses

Rossiya, the channel that airs Popov and Skabeeva’s show, is part of the state media holding VGTRK (the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company). For the last 25 years it has been headed by Oleg Dobrodeev, who owns assets worth billions of rubles. Dobrodeev has been sanctioned by Canada, the UK, Australia, and the EU. Before the ban, he made frequent trips to Europe, most often visiting Italy.

Dobrodeev’s official salary, according to data obtained by The Insider, is relatively modest: 690,000 rubles a month (just over $100,000 annually). However, he typically receives a quarterly payout of 15 million rubles ($189,000) from the National Advertising Alliance (“Natsionalny Reklamniy Alyans,” or “NRA”), a limited liability company. The company was founded by state-owned VGTRK, Perviy Kanal (“Channel One”), Gazprom-Media, and the pro-Kremlin National Media Group as a unified platform for selling television advertising.

The same payout scheme — 15 million rubles every few months from the NRA — is used by Channel One CEO Konstantin Ernst, whose official Channel One salary is only 850,000 rubles a month ($128,000 per year).

NTV CEO Alexei Zemsky, by contrast, does not bother to be modest. As The Insider has found, over the past year he has received on average 17 million rubles a month from the channel (almost $2.6 million annually). NTV is part of Gazprom’s state-controlled media holding and survives thanks to subsidies from Russia’s government budget.