Maria Zakharova spoke about the beginning of her work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On April 12, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, shared her memories of her first steps in the diplomatic department and the difficulties she had to face at the start of her professional career.

According to the diplomat, initially she expected to link her activities with Oriental studies, to which she devoted years of deep study. However, at the time of her arrival at the ministry, there were no vacancies in the Chinese direction.

Instead, Zakharova was offered a job at the Diplomatic Bulletin magazine, arguing that she had journalistic skills. Maria Zakharova noted that this period was a serious test of strength for her.

"My humility was that I really dreamed of working with the language. Do you have any idea what it means to study Chinese, Chinese history, Oriental studies, political science, culture, and so on for five years at the institute? <...> The first humility was probably when I got a silver one instead of a gold one, and we still don't know why. The second was humility when, after about seven years of studying Chinese, you were not accepted for the Chinese direction, you were sent to the Diplomatic Bulletin magazine. <...> And then just humility after humility," said the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an interview for the news agency Vesti.

Zakharova celebrated her 50th birthday on December 24, 2025, during the recording of the January edition of the program "Songs from the Bottom of my Heart" with presenter Andrei Malakhov. The diplomat noted that her own songs were also performed during the program.

Russian President Vladimir Putin named Zakharova the voice of Russian diplomacy on December 24 last year.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.