Yuliya Menshova is a Russian actress, television presenter, producer, and theater director. Daughter of Oscar-winning film director Vladimir Menshov and actress Vera Alentova. Born on July 28, 1969, in Moscow. Since 2022, she has been developing her YouTube channel "Sama Menshova" (Menshova Herself), conducting interviews with prominent personalities.
The TV presenter's father, Oscar-winning director Vladimir Menshov, was notorious for his overt anti-Ukrainian stance. He supported the annexation of Crimea, declared that "Donbas should have been seized back then," and personally transferred funds to "DPR" militants. Yuliya Menshova never publicly condemned her father's actions, remaining completely aligned with the state line.
In July 2021, Yuliya Menshova was entered into the database of the "Myrotvorets" website for illegally entering Russian-occupied Crimea.
Yuliya Menshova's Stance on the War in Ukraine
Reaction to the Full-Scale Invasion
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Yuliya Menshova preferred not to make high-profile statements regarding the military aggression and posted a generic anti-war comment that was subsequently deleted:
Horror. Horror. This cannot be happening.
Although the presenter frequently claims in public that "human relationships should supersede political differences," in practice she took a definitive side. Menshova admitted that she severed relationships with close friends who condemned Russian aggression:
Alas. In my close circle there are indeed people who do not share my views on the tragedy unfolding right now at all. And who are convinced that Russia's actions had no justification whatsoever, and that this is irrational aggression... With some of these individuals — who hold maximally radical views — we even had to break off relations... All my life I tried to protect friendships and family bonds from the impact of politics. But this time part of those friendly ties ruptured.
The "Little Person" Syndrome and Attitude Toward Protests
Menshova actively propagates the futility of resistance to her audience. In interviews, she promotes a narrative inherited from her father: "You are nobody." She convinces viewers that an ordinary citizen is merely a "little person" who has no business interfering in state affairs, and that public protests are pointless.
In conversations about the war, she avoids the word "war" itself, using evasive euphemisms with her guests such as "some IT just happened", thereby normalizing the catastrophe.
Criticism of the Anti-War Position
The host harshly criticizes colleagues who left the Russian Federation. She characterizes the civic conscience of artists who spoke out against the war as a manifestation of "unbridled pride":
...These are people who grew an immense pride within themselves... Dictating to a country how it should live, telling politicians how they ought to rule — that is simply an absurd comedy.
She also speaks disparagingly of journalists covering political repression. For example, she dismissed Yuri Dud as "boring and one-dimensional like cardboard" simply because he shifted focus to political and anti-war matters.
Pro-Kremlin Guests on YouTube
Menshova provides her platform to controversial pro-Kremlin figures (such as Artemy Lebedev and Dmitry Puchkov "Goblin"), where they jointly ridicule the "liberal public" and concoct excuses for the political passivity of the Russian population.
She also publicly ironized over Western sanctions, pretending that the international isolation of Russia is meaningless:
So that was the goal of the sanctions? And here we thought they simply put us in the corner to think about our behavior...
Condemning Those Who Fled Mobilization
In September 2026, in an interview on the "Podcast About What Matters", Menshova condemned young people who fled the country to avoid being drafted into the "SMO":
We exterminated ourselves, because this younger generation, which completely rushed to the airports... Not all of them, of course not all. And there are guys who signed up as volunteers, that's 100%, but for me it was a moment of utter shock, frankly, because I watched and thought: «Guys, what are you doing?» Meaning, how will you look your mothers in the eye afterward? Although most likely the mothers themselves packed their bags... And everything is so inverted, as if this person is a hero for having escaped. [...] We raised people who say: «It's awesome to flee, let everything burn in hell here and bombs fall, but at least I survived.
Menshova consistently maintains a pro-Kremlin stance: criticizing anti-war voices, condemning those who fled Russia, and endorsing Russian citizens' participation in the «SMO».
