The decree, first reported by The Insider, cites services in the field of mass media and many years of conscientious work as the grounds for the awards.

Among those receiving the Order of Friendship is correspondent Ivan Blagoy, author of a 2016 report about "girl Lisa," who was allegedly abducted and raped in Germany by migrants. German police established that the girl was neither abducted nor raped, The Insider notes.

Reporter Kirill Brainin was awarded the Order of Honor. The Insider has examined his reports as fakes, including segments about the Skripal case and about the alleged collaboration of former Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite with the KGB.

Dmitry Simes, host of the program "Bolshaya Igra," also received the Order of Friendship. He is under sanctions imposed by Canada and Ukraine. In the United States, a criminal case has been opened against Simes: the Justice Department alleges that after the introduction of American sanctions against Channel One he continued to work for the television channel and received from it more than $1 million, a car with a driver and money for housing in Moscow. He is charged with violating the sanctions regime and money laundering.

Ekaterina Berezovskaya, host of the program "Vremya," received the medal of the Order "For Services to the Fatherland" I degree. She is under sanctions imposed by Ukraine. In March 2022, she presented to viewers a group of people who had arrived in occupied Ukrainian territory as Western journalists. As The Insider established, the group included a pro-Kremlin activist, an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist and a person linked to structures associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Channel deputy general director Tatyana Garanina and host Yuri Simonov (Vyazemsky) received the Order "For Services to the Fatherland" IV degree.

In total, the Order of Friendship was awarded to Sergei Andreyev, Ivan Blagoy, Alexei Kaskov, Dmitry Simes, Maxim Sharafutdinov and Pyotr Shepin. The medal of the Order "For Services to the Fatherland" I degree, besides Berezovskaya, was awarded to Roman Budnikov, Konstantin Vavilov, Maria Vasilyeva, Yelena Demidova, Grigory Yemelyanov, Svetlana Zeynalova, Yulia Zimina, Valeria Korablyova, Larisa Krymova, Yelena Lapshina, Olga Masliy, Ekaterina Mtsituridze, Anton Nenashev, Dmitry Orlov, Tatyana Pirogova, Timur Solovyov, Rustam Suleimankhil, Sergei Tugushev, Andrei Ukharev, Yulia Fatyukhina and Olga Chernosvitova.

The medal of the Order "For Services to the Fatherland" II degree was awarded to Sergei Arkhipov, Sergei Babayev, Ilya Bulavinov, Anton Volsky, Olga Vorontsova, Alyona Germanova, Roman Guttsait, Alexander Dudkin, Alexei Zotov, Denis Kazansky, Alexander Kosygin, Olesya Loseva, Irina Muromtseva, Dmitry Popkov, Denis Ratov, Pavel Rudakov, Alexander Smola, Andrei Stolyarov, Valery Shein and Yelena Shtokolova.

This is the third mass decoration of Channel One employees in a month. By a decree dated September 3, Putin awarded another 28 workers of the television channel, among them deputy general director Natalya Nikonova, directorate heads Sergei Sokolov and Svetlana Kolosova, sports commentators Vladimir Gomelsky and Viktor Gusev, host Arina Sharapova and chief producer of musical and entertainment programs Yuri Aksyuta. In total, since the beginning of September more than a hundred employees of the channel have received state awards, Agentstvo notes.