Maria Eduardovna Sittel (; born November 9, 1975) is a Russian television presenter and an anchor on the Vesti program at

Russia-1 Russia-1 () is a state-owned Russian television channel, first aired on 14 February 1956 as Programme Two in the Soviet Union. It was relaunched as RTR on 13 May 1991, and is known today as Russia-1. It is the flagship channel of the All-Russia ...

. She won the Russian

TEFI TEFI () is an annual award given in the Russian television industry, presented by the Russian Academy of Television. It has been awarded since 1994. TEFI is presented in various sectors (up to 50 nominations in 2008), such as television shows ...

award.

Early life and education

Sittel was born on November 9, 1975, in

Penza Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. She is the daughter of Eduard Anatolyevich Sittel, who has German ancestry, and Larisa Pavlovna. Sittel studied at the Penza Medical Lyceum until 1993, when she transferred to the V. G. Belinsky Penza Institute of Teacher Education and majored in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

. Later, she graduated from the All-Russian State Distance-Learning Institute of Finance and Economics with a degree in

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

and

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

Career

Sittel began her television career in 1997 in her hometown on the program ''Musical Souvenir'' on the Penza channel "Our House". In 1998, she became a correspondent and later a news presenter on the Penza Express television channel. In 1999, she started working at State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company in Penza. From September 24, 2001, to May 14, 2006, Sittel worked as a daily news presenter on Vesti TV channel

. In September 2003, she replaced Sergey Brilev as the regular nightly newscaster. From 2004 to 2005, she hosted the daily show ''Osoboe Mnenie'' ("Minority Report") on

Radio Rossii Radio Rossii (, ''Radio of Russia'') is the primary public radio station in Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest coun ...

. From May 15, 2006, to June 17, 2016, Sittel presented the nightly news with

Dmitry Kiselyov Dmitry Konstantinovich Kiselyov (; born April 26, 1954) is a Russian TV presenter and propagandist. In 2013, Kiselyov was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to head '' Rossiya Segodnya'', a Russian state-controlled media group. He ...

(until July 2008) and Andrey Kondrashov (since September 2008). Sittel covered the lying-in-state of Boris Yeltsin on April 25, 2007, with

Nikolai Svanidze Nikolay Karlovich Svanidze (; 2 April 1955 – 11 September 2024) was a Russian television and radio host and member of the Public Chamber of Russia. Biography Nikolai Karlovich Svanidze was named after his paternal grandfather Nikolai Samsono ...

live on Channel One and

. From 2008 to 2011, she hosted the annual program ''Conversation with Vladimir Putin: continued'' with Ernest Matskyavichus. From September 6, 2009, to December 25, 2011, she hosted the program ''Special Correspondent''. On May 14, 2018, after a two-year break, she returned to the Vesti program. On 18 March 2022, Sittel, together with

Dmitry Guberniev Dmitry Viktorovich Guberniev (; born October 6, 1974, Drezna, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR) is a Russian TV presenter, sports commentator of TV channel Match TV. Previously, he was the editor in chief of the Joint Directorate of sports chan ...

, was the host of the Moscow rally in support of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Participation in other TV projects

Sittel has participated in episodes of the TV game show Fort Boyard. In 2006, Maria Sittel and professional dancer Vladislav Borodinov took part in the first season of the television competition ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

'' in Russia. The couple won first place, which gave them the right to participate at the

Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 The Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 was the inaugural edition of the Eurovision Dance Contest, a dance competition co-production between the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster BBC. The first ever pan-European dance competition w ...

, where they finished in seventh place.

Personal life

Sittel is married to Alexander Lyubomirovich Tereshchenko (b. 1979). She has a younger sister, Anna Sittel, who also works at

VGTRK The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR) or Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, also known as Russia Television and Radio, is a national state-owned broadcaster which operates many television and radio channel ...

. Until 2013, she was the presenter of the Vesti-Penza programme. Sittel is fond of photography, alpine skiing, sports and reading books.

Awards

* Laureate of the

(2005) award for News programme presenter *

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...

(June 27, 2007 ) "for her great contribution to the development of Russian television and many years of fruitful work" * Letter of gratitude from the

Government of the Russian Federation The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...

(March 31, 2009) "for active participation in the coverage of the activities of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation"'' * Letter of gratitude from the

(March 3, 2012) "for active participation in covering the activities of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation"

References

External links

Maria Sittel on Vesti.ru

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sittel, Maria Russian television journalists Russian women journalists 1975 births Living people People from Penza Penza State University alumni Russian people of German descent Recipients of the Order of Friendship