Pro-war propagandist Tetiana Montian added to Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists”

Pro-Kremlin Ukrainian commentator Tetiana Montian has been added to the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service’s list of “terrorists and extremists,” according to an update to the agency’s registry released on Oct. 27. Montian, who moved from Ukraine to Russia in 2021, worked for the state-controlled propaganda outlet RT and has publicly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Being included on the agency's “terrorists and extremists” list typically means that a designee is already the subject of an active criminal investigation. However, Russian law enforcement had not previously reported any claims against Montian, and the reason for her inclusion in the list so far remains unknown.

However, Ekaterina Mizulina, head of the state-sponsored censorship organization “Safe Internet League,” wrote that the body had earlier filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry against Montian “for discrediting the [Russian] army in her blog posts.”

Montian’s path to “terrorist” status in Russia was long and winding. She was born in Kerch, Crimea in 1972 and graduated from Moscow State University’s law faculty in 1994 before working for several years in Ukraine as an attorney. In 2014 she opposed the Euromaidan movement and later began defending Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine. In 2015 she was added to Ukraine’s “Myrotvorets” (lit. “Peacekeeper”) database for collaborating with Russian militants and separatists, including by providing them with legal assistance.

In 2021 Montian moved to Russia, where she worked as a columnist for the state-controlled propaganda outlet RT and appeared on multiple state television channels. On Feb. 17, 2022, exactly one week before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she addressed a session of the UN Security Council, accusing the West of trying to “drag Russia into war.” In her public statements and social media posts she consistently criticized the Ukrainian government and voiced support for Moscow.

At the same time, her Telegram channel often includes posts attacking other pro-Russian propagandists, such as TV host Vladimir Solovyov, whom she has called “a stupid, aggressive moron and degenerate.” In May of this year, the Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which is close to Russian security services, reported that in December 2024 Montian bought an apartment in Moscow worth at least 25 million rubles (approximately $315,000).

“She has no official income, no job, and pays no taxes. Yet she constantly runs ‘frontline fundraisers,’ which, judging by the number of appeals, she conducts almost around the clock,” the channel’s authors wrote. Solovyov himself hinted in one of his broadcasts that Montian might have been “stealing” donations intended for Russian soldiers.

In 2023, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced a criminal case against Montian under four articles of the country’s criminal code, including charges of collaborationism and encroaching on the country’s territorial integrity.

Montian is the latest example of a pro-Kremlin figure assigned a status usually reserved for the opposite side of the political spectrum in Putin’s Russia. Pro-war blogger Roman Alekhin was designated a “foreign agent” on Sept. 20, while “Kremlin insider” and political commentator Sergei Markov was designated on Aug. 22. Alekhin notably stopped running his Telegram channel and other social media accounts after the designation, saying it was “psychologically very difficult to write posts with the [foreign agent] label when you have not betrayed your Motherland, your people or even the current authorities.”

As for those who openly oppose Putin and his policies, in October 2025 alone the Federal Financial Monitoring Service added opposition politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, as well as TV Rain journalists Tikhon Dzyadko, Yekaterina Kotrikadze, Valeria Ratnikova, and Anna Mongait to the “terrorists and extremists” list. Its rate of growth has increased markedly in recent years and is now comparable in size to the “foreign agents” register maintained by Russia’s Ministry of Justice.

The measure against Montian is more restrictive than those enacted against fellow “patriots” Alekhin and Markov, as a “terrorist and extremist” listing triggers a set of immediate penalties that include the freezing of bank accounts (with the allowance of monthly withdrawals capped at 10,000 rubles ($120) to cover basic living expenses). Legal experts interviewed by the independent outlet Meduza have described inclusion on the list as a form of “civil death.”