| Birth Name: | Maria Igorevna Makeeva |
| Birth Date: | 25 August 1974 |
| Citizenship: | USSR→Russia |
| Occupation: | Russian and German journalist, radio and television presenter |
| Spouse: | Alexei Kozlov (businessman) |
Maria Igorevna Makeeva (Russian: Мария Игоревна Макеева) is a Russian and German journalist, radio and television presenter.
Maria Makeeva was born on 25 August 1974 in Moscow.[1] In 1996, she graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities with a degree in museology (art history).[2] For her thesis she studied the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve, where she worked short term as a tour guide.[3]
In October 1995, she started her career as a news presenter on the air of Russkoye Radio, one of the first and at that time the most successful commercial radio station in Russia. In 2007, she left the company, at that time holding the positions of the host of the main daily morning news show and deputy general director of Russian News Service.[4]
From 2007 to 2010, she worked at Silver Rain Radio. She hosted the main evening daily news show[5] and weekly interview with leading Russian businessmen.[6]
In 2010, she joined the independent news channel TV Rain as deputy editor-in-chief and TV-presenter.[7] [8] From the very beginning of her work at TV Rain, she anchored the main daily news programme and special broadcasts, covering important events in Russia, such as elections,[9] Russian protests,[10] the trials of Pussy Riot[11] and Alexey Navalny.[12] One of the guests in the studio was Dmitry Medvedev, who was President of the Russian Federation at the time.[13]
She was a special TV Rain correspondent during the 2012 United States presidential election.[14] For two seasons she released the author's shows MAKEEVA about Russian political and public life.[15] [16] Produced and hosted the reality project President-2042, where young people born after 1991 competed for the title of the president of the future and participated in all the events in which presidential candidates in democratic countries take part (rallies, debates, etc.).[17]
In 2015, she took the position of director of TV Rain news department and actually fulfilled the duties of the channel's editor-in-chief after Mikhail Zygar left.[18]
In 2017, after moving to Berlin, she started working as editor-in-chief at the German Russian-language TV channel: she renamed it OstWest, rebranded it, and launched dozens of new projects, including the author's weekly news and analysis programme "East-West. The Week".[19]
In 2022, the Ukrainian-Russian-German OstWest team won the German national award (Deutsche Nationalstiftung) for its contribution to German democracy and countering propaganda.[20] [21] [22] [23] [24] The Deutsche Nationalstiftung is awarded to people and organizations promoting democracy, participation and cohesion in Germany and Europe.[25]
Also in 2022, OstWest TV was honoured with the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award, Germany award for television journalism.[26]