“I didn’t go to Crimea or Donbass”: anti-Putin blogger Shikhman was not allowed into Ukraine

Host of the YouTube channel “Should we talk?” They call it “Russian Julia Roberts”, “Dud in a skirt”. They say about Irina Shikhman that “she is the one who makes TV for those who don’t watch TV.” Unusually interesting as a journalist, presenter and as a woman, smart and ironic, calm and able to ask a tricky question at the “wrong” moment - a rare symbiosis of all advantages against the backdrop of modern female bloggers. Its program on YouTube is in second place in terms of media attention to interview channels and among YouTube viewers who love this genre. She is called a blogger, but few people know that in fact Irina Shikhman, until recently, was not the owner of her own channel on YouTube: she received a salary as an hired employee, at the same time the program “Should we talk?” everywhere it is officially presented as an author’s project.

She became a star on Tomsk television, but left everything and went to St. Petersburg - why? She worked very successfully for Sergei Mayorov, but unexpectedly left him, and even (as they still gossip) she took with her a large team of talented people. What was the reason for this, and why is Mayorov still sulking (almost official information) about Irina? Why in 2019, when the topic of mass summer protests was relevant on TV, was the project “Let’s Talk?” ignored these events? Why did Irina’s mother call her daughter that same year and say almost in a panic: “What have you done! Now, if they don’t put you in prison, then your program will definitely be closed!” Irina Shikhman's biography is full of dangerous plots and unexpected turns - exactly like her author's program.

Official data

• Last name, first name, patronymic: Shikhman, Irina Yuryevna;
• Place of birth: Russian Federation, Tomsk;
• Date of birth: 1984, May 17;
• Zodiac sign: Taurus; according to the eastern calendar - Blue Rat (element of the year tree); patron planet Venus;
• Nationality: Jewish;
• Education: studied at Tomsk State University (faculty of journalism), continued her studies by correspondence in St. Petersburg;
• Occupation: journalist, TV presenter, blogger;
• Relationship status: Single; in relations with Evgeny Kazachkov;
• Children: no children.

Biography: childhood and youth

Many regular viewers of the STS, Domashny, NTV, Russia 24 TV channels are interested in a lot of questions about how old the red-haired beauty with blue eyes is, who so skillfully conducts dialogues with famous people, what kind of education she received and what she does in her free time.

The future television star Irina Shikhman was born in 1984, on May 17. Her zodiac sign is Taurus, and therefore she is stubborn and decisive. According to the Eastern horoscope - Rat. Among people born in the year of which this animal is the patron saint, there are many intellectually developed and creatively gifted individuals. A striking example is Leo Tolstoy and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, William Shakespeare and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Peter I and George Washington. Irina, like many representatives of this sign, has determination, practicality, and the ability to overcome difficulties.

Shikhman is a true Siberian, since she was born in the city of Tomsk. The TV presenter does not talk about her nationality, but her last name suggests that Irina is Jewish. The girl grew up in a working-class family. The names of the parents are unknown to the public, but given the intense childhood years and the high level of education received by Ira, it is worth noting that mom and dad supported their daughter’s endeavors. The family lived modestly, so Irina dreamed of finding a profitable profession.

In an interview about herself, the journalist said that she had been active in social work since kindergarten, comparing herself to Shurochka from Ryazanov’s film “Office Romance.” At school, the bright student was the center of attention and enthusiastically took part in the life of the class. Outside of classes, Irina enjoyed visiting the dance studio, where she was a soloist. Excellent stretching made it possible to easily do the splits, and a sense of rhythm and plasticity made it possible to perform the most complex choreographic elements. Shikhman was highly appreciated by teachers, family, and friends, advising the girl to think about becoming a choreographer. Ira herself dreamed of performing in one of the most prestigious dance groups in the country - the show ballet “Todes”.

The ability to write and a good writing style showed up unexpectedly. While studying in the 6th grade, Shikhman decided to distinguish herself from her classmates and wrote the assigned essay in poetry. After the test, I received a well-deserved A and praise from the teacher, who recommended that I practice more and become a journalist in the future. At that time, Irina still knew little about this profession, but after consulting with her mother and thinking about it, she decided that it was very interesting.

The girl managed to prove herself as a leading girl at the age of 13 at a Tomsk radio station. This was my first experience in the profession and my first self-earned money. After graduating from school, Irina successfully passed the entrance exams at the Faculty of Journalism at Tomsk State University and was enrolled in the first year, but the student was unable to complete her full-time studies here. Love intervened. In 2005, for the sake of a young man at the age of 21, Irina went to the Northern capital, transferring to a correspondence course. I also had to give up my successful career on Tomsk television. Thus a new page opened in the biography of the star.

In St. Petersburg, Shikhman got a job as a special correspondent for the local editorial office of the “Stories in Detail” program, and a year later she received a personal invitation from Sergei Mayorov to come to Moscow to continue cooperation. Since 2006, the rapid professional development of a TV presenter begins.

About childhood and the beginning of a journalistic career

Pharmacist and energy engineer – these professions of Irina’s mother and father were named by the resource “Meduza” after an interview with her. According to the presenter and journalist herself, her childhood was not very prosperous: as she mentioned on Instagram, her little parents could not, for example, buy a bicycle - she learned to ride a bicycle when she grew up. But she, despite the not very good financial situation in the family, went to all sorts of school clubs, took up dancing, and showed great promise in ballet. “I dreamed of starting my studies at Todes,” it is written about Irina Shikhman on Wikipedia: the pleasure is not the cheapest, so the dream remained a dream.

Another unpleasant detail of her childhood is that when the girl was eleven years old, her father and mother divorced. What didn’t happen to her was what happens in families where parents separate and become irreconcilable enemies, and this affects the child’s communication with his father: Ira continued to communicate with her father, and one of Irina’s dad’s close friends, a well-known journalist in Tomsk, was the first to give direction her in choosing a profession. The woman heard Ira’s story about a friend who admired “Ivanushki International” and invited the girl to perform in a children’s radio program. This report became the first work of the future famous presenter in the field of journalism: Irina interviewed a friend who intended to create her own band called “Star”, inspired by the successes of “Ivanushki”.

The management of Tomsk Radio liked the girl’s first work so much that Ira soon became a permanent presenter there. And at school they openly told her that her future was in the field of journalism, definitely on radio or television, she was so good at the art of expressing her thoughts on interesting topics. She simply delighted her literature teacher with her essays. Her teacher was especially delighted when Irina wrote an essay... in poetry! It was on such a confident wave that Ira Shikhman, at the age of sixteen, came to “TV 2” in her hometown, where she was hired to work in the “Youth Prospect” program.

Childhood and adolescence[edit | edit code]

Irina Shikhman was born in the Russian city of Tomsk on May 17, 1984. Her family was of low income; she was not spoiled as a child. Irina admitted on her Instagram page that as a child, her parents did not have the money to buy her a bicycle, so she learned to ride one as an adult. Since childhood, the girl has been dancing, attended ballet school, and dreamed of dancing at Todes. At school, Irina made progress in literature, teachers praised her, and the girl decided to devote her life to journalism. Her parents strongly supported her choice and admired her achievements. At the age of 13, Irina first tried herself in journalism: she worked on the radio in her hometown, where she received her first salary - 12 rubles a month. After graduating from school, the girl entered Tomsk State University at the Faculty of Journalism.[2]

From Tomsk to St. Petersburg

From TV 2 she moved to the large holding company Tomsk Media Group, it happened somehow by itself: the young journalist was noticed on Tomsk television and her undoubted professional talents were appreciated. “STS: Open Television” – Irina Shikhman remembers this place of work with great nostalgia, especially since this project gave her not just tremendous experience working on TV. “We were on billboards, I signed autographs on the street!” - this is how she describes the period of work at Tomsk TV. Well, of course: what was, for example, the worth of the scandalous TV series “Mayor’s Life”! Pyotr Petrovich Zasaraev, the main character of the series, was of course a collective image, but how transparently the habits of some high officials, both local and national, were visible in his behavior.

Midnight, Irina Shikhman leaves Tomsk... “It was scary to leave, from stability, fame, from dad and mom, and even more scary was the fact that I wouldn’t be able to gain a foothold there and would come back - that means I couldn’t?” – journalist Shikhman describes that moment on TV Channel Dozhd in February 2020. And then he adds: “My dad’s crazy motivation helped: even when I was very little, he constantly repeated to me: “When you turn eighteen, pack your clothes and go to Moscow!” He didn’t kick me out at all, but set me up in advance for bold global actions.” Then Irina left not for the capital, but for St. Petersburg, “following love” - this phrase was repeated by her many times, and this was in fact the case.

“The most terrible period of life” - these are the words Irina Shikhman called the two years she spent in St. Petersburg. “The Person of the Frame”, a girl whom almost everyone in Tomsk knew by sight and ran after her asking for an autograph, she faced mockery and disdain in the northern capital. Not only was she, with her wealth of experience working on TV, categorically not hired: they didn’t just not hire her, but they actually mocked her: “Why did you come, what do you hope for? Nobody calls me - let’s hang out from here.” “I roared like a beluga every day for six months,” from her revelations today.

Later, Ira will give advice to those who find themselves in a similar situation: you need to be patient for a year, a maximum of one and a half, and not give up all this time - everything will gradually return to normal, of course, with the condition that you will not just cry, but will continue to look for work.

But the two lovers who came to St. Petersburg had to eat! And also pay rent, buy some things: “I’m not ashamed to admit, but Seryozha (her boyfriend) and I earned money for some time by painting windows and laying tiles. Because the three thousand that he received went towards renting an apartment, there was nothing left for anything else,” from her interview in February 2020. “We were stuck with our faces on the asphalt,” is how she describes the time when she couldn’t get a job anywhere in her profession. She managed to get on the radio, and there is information that Irina Shikhman also filmed small reports in St. Petersburg, then sent them to Tomsk television for free: she did this so as not to lose her “professional” form.

Those who worked on St. Petersburg TV in the early 2000s will probably be offended, but it’s worth citing Ira Shikhman’s review of the level of work in St. Petersburg: “Simply incredibly low compared to my hometown!” (from a conversation on Radio Echo of Moscow). And before her eyes at that time there were two idols with whom she dreamed of working until her knees trembled - these were Leonid Parfenov and Sergei Mayorov: the second invited her to work in Moscow in the project “Stories in Detail” in 2007. “It was a ‘well, dreams come true’ kind of thing.” It was incredibly pleasant!” – Ira said later. A long seven-year period of work began with the “despot and genius in one bottle” Sergei Mayorov.

New Horizons

In St. Petersburg, Shikhman got a job as a special correspondent for local television. For about a year the girl worked on the “Stories in Details” project. In 2006, Irina moved to Moscow, where she took part in the filming of such projects as: “Details. Recent History" and "Diary of Observations".

On October 17, 2020, the premiere of a new social show called “Double Standards” took place on the NTV channel. The program was hosted by Irina Shikhman and Andrey Samartsev. The program is dedicated to reviewing topical issues happening in Russia and abroad.

Correspondents and studio guests tried to understand the question of the benefits and harms of vegetarianism. Also, the show participants decided whether long-term mortgages and rental housing are good or bad.

The following year, Shikhman, together with Samartsev, hosted the entertainment and tourism program “Double Standards. This is not the place for you!” The presenters told Russians about the positive and negative aspects of traveling around their native Russia and traveling beyond its borders.

Then Irina began working together with Maria Viskunova on the Internet project “Should we talk?” . The format of the program was based on a frank conversation with popular media personalities.

The first guest of Shikhman and Viskunova was the famous Instagram blogger Nikolai Sobolev, who has his own blog Sobolev. The man spoke about the difficulties of promoting an Instagram account, his love for the cat family and his soulmate. The next person to visit the “Should we talk?” studio became the scandalous TV presenter and actress Tina Kandelaki. She shared with the presenters the details of the quarrel with Yuri Dudem and her plans.

Among the famous guests of Irina and Maria were: Maxim Vitorgan, Maria Zakharova, Vera Polozkova, Tatyana Lazareva, Miguel, Roma Zver, Anton Krasovsky and Lyudmila Ulitskaya.

At the same time, Irina worked on the creation of such programs as: “Indian Summer”, “Female Gender” and “Male Gender” on the Domashny channel, as well as “Secrets of the Stars” on Ukrainian television.

Then Shikhman, together with Vladimir Raevsky, hosted the culinary talk show “First and Compote” on the Rossiya 24 channel. The presenters talked about the history of the appearance of well-known and beloved dishes: Olivier and Caesar salads, cabbage rolls, Kiev cutlets, eclairs and charlotte.

Now the popular TV presenter, journalist and blogger Irina Shikhman continues to work independently on her author’s project “Should we talk?” Although co-host Maria Viskunova left the program, the show did not lose its meaning and piquancy.

Working with Sergei Mayorov: deserves a separate chapter

Just a warning: everything voiced below is taken exclusively from the voice, “live” statements of Irina Shikhman, and from trustworthy sources (as with regards to Sergei Mayorov’s remarks). Printed texts can be questioned, but when there is a recording of a live performance, what is said is definitely original. Irina’s collaboration with Mayorov actually began a year earlier, in 2006, when the STS channel intended to launch the popular program “History in Detail” on St. Petersburg TV. A miracle happened: Ira Shikhman came for an interview, did a test report, and was hired to work on regional broadcasts. And in 2007, at the invitation of Sergei Mayorov, she moved to Moscow to work there.

Hurray, finally you don’t have to think about whether you’ll make money tomorrow! “I was already going to Moscow for a specific salary and knew that I could rent an apartment there, and there would be money for food and so on,” from Shikhman’s story. Irina’s star flared up with renewed vigor under Mayorov’s leadership, plus he gave the girl a huge knowledge base of working in the journalistic and television environment in general - Irina never tires of emphasizing this in every interview, expressing her deep gratitude to her former boss for the experience gained. “I’ll knock your crowns off!” – she periodically repeats this phrase of his, emphasizing Sergei’s ability to slow down the “star fever” that appears among his colleagues, to prevent people who have gained sharp popularity from turning up their noses. But if he is so cool, wise, fair, why did the whole team, along with Irina Shikhman, leave him, and why exactly do Irina and Sergei Mayorov still practically not communicate?

The main reason that until now, after Irina left STS, she has no communication with Moyorov, she voices this: “He (this must be admitted) has an extremely difficult time letting go of people... He left, no matter for what reasons - an enemy!” In her words: “He let me go in the same way, and they stopped contacting me. But I am always ready for dialogue! To dialogue and (laughs) to a cup of coffee.” The host of the “It’s Not Evening Yet” project joked about this when he hosted Irina as a guest on the show: “Your relationship with Mayorov can be called “an understatement between exes”: you need to meet, talk calmly and openly make claims against each other.” And employee of the “Stories in Detail” team Nikita Loik (future co-author of “Should I Talk?”) in a conversation with Meduza journalists used the word “terrible” in describing his work with Mayorov: “You could expect anything from him - once he threw at In a fit of anger, Ira threw a fountain pen and almost hit him in the eye.”

Mayorov, in response to accusations of despotism, intolerance, rudeness and other troubles when working with him, retorted on the same resource: “You should not confuse professionalism and character traits.” Wow, character traits! Moreover, Irina Shikhman said with a laugh (now) about working with him that one could expect anything from the boss, from three-letter messages and shouts: “Get out of the profession!” - until open admiration a minute later, as if nothing had happened. “It was like a real family relationship. Everything happened - quarrels, swearing, praise, and of course a huge experience of working next to a real professional. Mayorov, despite all his negative sides, gave me enormous experience in the field of journalism over seven years of cooperation,” says Irina Shikhman now. Why did she leave him after all, why did she abruptly quit, although (as she herself admits), “she was ready to endure the costs and work with him endlessly”?

In early interviews, Ira tried to nullify talk about the true reason for the departure of both herself and the entire team of Mayorov’s subordinates. At the end of 2019, in an interview for Meduza, and then at the beginning of 2020 on Channel Dozhd, she revealed the secret - why this happened, why such a fuss flared up, and what are the reasons that not only she left STS and Mayorov. This is no longer a secret, the reason turned out to be banal - money. In 2014, when a rather serious crisis broke out on TV, Sergei Mayorov’s company suspended payments to employees (according to some reports, due to the fact that many solid contracts were broken). Irina and her colleagues agreed to be patient for a month or two, but not a year! And this is exactly the (even longer) period of non-payment of wages that she herself names in an interview on the Dozhd Channel.

In her words about the current situation: “It’s still wild for me to imagine that Mayorov, a fanatic of timely payments (he always strictly followed this personally!), allowed something like this to happen. I left on time, that is, I didn’t lose much financially, but still some of my colleagues have not received what they earned for a year or more...” Mayorov, to his credit, does not stoop to insulting Irina Shikhman, calling her “beautiful, expressive, diligent, certainly talented.” And yet, he sometimes takes the opportunity to “put a pin” in her back, saying: “A lot of time and effort was invested in this journalist.” Yes, she, in fact, does not refuse this! The former boss admits that although he doesn’t watch “Should I Talk?” targeted, but devotes time to some issues - these are those where Irina says hello to him and reminds him that she is ready for dialogue (issues are sent to Mayorov by their mutual friends).

Career and journalism

In the city on the Neva, Irina ended up as a special correspondent for the local “Stories in Detail” and, after working for only a year, she moved to Moscow at the call of Sergei Mayorov. By the way, during the entire existence of the show, not a single lawsuit was filed against him and four TEFIs were won. In the new place, the journalist worked in the changed continuations of the program - “Details. Recent History" on STS and "Diary of Observations" on Channel Five.

TV presenters Irina Shikhman and Andrey Samartsev

In 2016, she moved to NTV, where, in a creative tandem with Andrei Samartsev, she “served” in “Double Standards,” opposing her own opinion to both the co-host and opponents on a wide variety of issues: from the personal lives of heroes to politics. The following year, the project went beyond covering only Russian reality - “This is not the place for you!” broadcast about the pros and cons of resorts in their native country, abroad and the CIS countries.

Also in 2017, the debut of “Should I Talk?” - programs where celebrity guests invariably remained tete-a-tete with curious beauties: Irina, Maria Viskunova, makeup artist, beauty blogger and fearless experimenter with hair color and also a blogger and presenter Elena Sazhina.

Maxim Vitorgan in Irina Shikhman’s show “Should we talk?”

Later, the girl trio fell apart, and only one remained the only full-fledged interviewer. Here questions are often asked that celebrities did not dare to ask because of their intimacy or, conversely, too sharp angles.

For example, the gifted Vera Polozkova, in addition to reading poems, pleased with the frankness of her story about childbirth at home, bullying and her beloved husband and children.

“What about talking?” with Irina Shikhman - a spontaneous story the day before departure, which grew into the most frank interview in many years. Thanks to Ira and everyone involved,” this is how the poetess herself responded about the resulting material.

Maria Zakharova in Irina Shikhman’s show “Should we talk?”
Irina also participated in the creation of episodes of the “Indian Summer” program and was the author of the documentary cycles “Masculine” and “Female” on Domashny, “Home for the Holidays” and “Secrets of the Stars” on the Ukraine TV channel. She even managed to work on “Moscow 24”, treating the audience to “Second and Compote”.

“Moscow 24”, channel “NTV”, and finally “Let’s talk?”

Wikipedia says sparingly about Irina Shikhman’s arrival at Moscow 24: “The girl had reasons for this.” She herself actually confirmed this for Meduza: “Yes, there was a reason - a mortgage, for which it was necessary to pay, which means to earn money somewhere.” Her own column “Just People”, where three-minute interviews taken from Muscovites were posted - this is how her activity on “Moscow 24” began. No, more precisely, she tried to work on the evening news, but “the problem is that I absolutely don’t know how and don’t like doing news,” in her words. Alexey Vershinin, the new boss at Moscow 24, allowed Irina to release “Just People”: “Of course, it wasn’t even a step back compared to the almost hour-long work previously, but it’s definitely better than climbing through garbage dumps and fires,” her comment on this matter.

“We’ve come in large numbers” - this project appeared on TV in 2015, when Vershinin became the general producer at “Moscow 24”. This was not the only program that Vershinin allowed Irina to produce - in fact, there were three of them. “Nobody gave them to me for any special or “murky” merits: I came up with them, brought them to Alexey, and he gave the go-ahead” - a fragment of a conversation on Meduza.

Then she, in her words, “ran to NTV for a year”: the calculation was, Irina admits, purely practical - the girl wanted to be watched not by several thousand, like Vershinin, but by tens of millions, as everyone is watched on NTV. Actually, she didn’t run away on her own, but was lured away – into the “Double Standards” program. This project was followed by “Double standards - this is not the place for you!”: together with the co-host, the journalist traveled around the world, sometimes the trips were even dangerous (on Instagram she told how Andrei Samartsev was daringly robbed in Ossetia).

A year later, Alexey Vershinin invited Irina to resume cooperation, but asked for guarantees that she “wouldn’t betray everyone again”: well... it happens that a journalist agrees to a more advantageous offer, in his opinion, as this is what happened with Shikhman’s transition to NTV. They decided to launch a new project based on the program “Oh, that’s it” (one of the programs that Irina came up with while working on “Moscow 24”). There, three girls of diverse appearance attacked the guests with tricky questions, and they did it well in contrast. On Echo of Moscow, Shikhman talked about the “trick” “Oh, that’s it”: “The emphasis was on contrast and on clear roles for all three of us. The blonde asked stupid questions, the brunette acted rude, I (the redhead) had thoughtful topics.”

I had to abandon the old name - there was already a channel on YouTube with that title. But they kept the old concept: three girls of different appearance, and all of them have a radically different way of asking questions. December 2017 and a meeting with blogger Nikolai Sobolev - this is how the project “Should I Talk?” was born on YouTube, where the hosts were a TV journalist and two Instagram bloggers. Why did the two presenters drop out, and only Irina remained? She was actually the initiator of this project, and was able to convince Vershinin that she could cope with the program alone. Vershinin later spoke about the transition from three leaders to a solo option: “The calculation was purely cynical, no offense. We recruited girls who already had an online audience, and when they completed their task (due to the arrival of subscribers), we decided to part with them” (from an interview with Meduza).

From the very first guest, visitors “Should we talk?” there were people who were interesting to Irina Shikhman; “custom” participants in the program, as she claims, have never been on this project and never will be. She also added: “They often reproached me: “Well, what kind of stupid principles do you have? Give up your principles, show someone for whom they will pay, at least once!” I will never do this - I’d rather be poor, but honest!” Vershinin, as the producer of the project, completely agrees with this position of his ward: “Views are the main result! Irina is best at talking with those who are personally interesting to her. I trust her completely and do not intend to participate in the selection of future guests.” Alexey also gave the presenter “Should we talk?” complete freedom in conversations. “Can we talk about Navalny?” - "Can". “Will there be censorship?” - "No. No imposing on guests or creating a list of questions in advance by someone else.”

Of course, it didn’t happen without unpleasant “showdowns” later with the participants of the program, without negative reviews on the Internet. Fans of “Should we talk?” remember what tirades Dima Bilan burst into online after his appearance in a conversation with Irina. “It’s a pity that I went there at all! I should have gone to Ksenia Sobchak, but I thought: Irina is unspoiled, it’s better to go to her...” The text of Bilan’s indignation was chaotic and emotional, and all because Irina gently but skillfully “deluded” the singer into revelations about his personal life (probably , Dima did not plan to post the story with his ex-girlfriend and her failed pregnancy). Another heap of negativity fell upon Shikhman after a conversation with Laysan Utyasheva: “If I don’t agree that as a woman, first of all, she must please a man, cook borscht, you will never get married!” – angry haters wrote to her. “I cook borscht perfectly, and not only can I cook borscht, but I’m not going to make a cult out of it,” Irina answered.

photo https://www.instagram.com/irinashikhman/

Politicians and writers, bloggers and singers, nutritionists and Eurovision stars - who hasn’t been in Irina Shikhman’s “soft cat’s paws”! There were not only interviews, but also documentary reports, for example, about prisons, “Fix Me If You Can.” Just after the release of this program, Ira’s mother called her in a panic (the journalist was abroad on a business trip): “What are you doing? Can you imagine what they can do to you for THIS?” But it’s hard to suppress the excitement, especially when the program is on a wave of success, and fans expect even more pressing questions and even more interesting topics from you. “And it’s so exciting - not just to get a person to talk, but to “return” the ball of a scoured interlocutor, if you come across one,” according to Irina. She cites a conversation with Maria Zakharova as an example of such a battle: “I understood that she could answer any question. And even more – it can crush me!”

In the spring of 2020, there were messages in the press that “What about talking?” not only breathes in the back of Yuri Dud’s program, but is already boldly stepping on his heels, and this is true. At the end of April 2020, the project had almost 140 million views, and on the night of April 26-27, the number of subscribers changed from 999 thousand to a million - the millionth “golden” threshold has been passed! This was facilitated not only by the fact that even before April all of Irina’s programs were interesting without exception, but also by the new format of several episodes. For example, in early April, “Should we talk?” went live on YouTube, and then the program “Can I help?” took place. with frank discussions about the difficulties of the Russian economy during the crisis, about the incredibly difficult situation of ordinary Russians during this period.

Creative path[ | ]

Irina Shikhman began her career in journalism on television in her hometown of Tomsk. There she is remembered as the host of the “Circumstances” program on the STS-Open TV channel.[3]

In 2005, without graduating from university, Irina moved to St. Petersburg, and in 2006 she began working as a correspondent for the local STS television channel in the famous program “Stories in Details.”[4]

At the invitation of her idol Sergei Mayorov, the host of the “Stories in Details” project, Shikhman moved to Moscow, where she worked as a journalist on his team for seven years.[5] Together with her, Shikhman later worked on such television programs as “Details. Recent History" on STS and "Diary of Observations" on Channel Five. After resigning, Shikhman was unable to continue communicating with Mayorov.

Irina Shikhman’s appearance on the Moscow-24 TV channel, according to her, was forced. However, there she created her own column “Just People,” the purpose of which was to present a complete picture of the metropolis through three-minute monologues of Muscovites.[6] In 2020, she launched her own project “We’ve come in large numbers” on the channel about the stories of the conquest of Moscow by successful people. Also, together with Maria Rybakova and Anastasia Tregubova, Shikhman began hosting the program “Oh, that’s it!”, the guests of which were show business stars, journalists, singers and others.

The appearance of the journalist on the NTV channel is associated with travel programs in Russia and abroad “Double Standards” and “Double Standards. This is not the place for you!”, which she hosted together with Andrei Samartsev.[7]

And talk[ | ]

Shikhman’s work on the YouTube platform began with the creation of the “And talk?..” channel in 2017. The hosts of the first episodes, in addition to Irina, were blogger and makeup artist Maria Viskunova and TV presenter Elena Sazhina, but soon Shikhman alone continued working on the channel.[8]

As of April 2020, Irina Shikhman’s channel “And talk?..” has almost a million subscribers and more than one hundred million views.[9] Initially, it was associated with the holding company of the Moscow City Hall, and one of the creators of the project was the producer of the Moscow-24 TV channel Alexey Vershinin.[10] Soon the holding announced that it was no longer producing this project.[11]

On the channel, the presenter raises serious social issues and current political issues, talking with guests of the program. In addition to the interview format, you can watch documentaries on the channel. For example, the two-hour film “Be(z)serebrenniki,” released in the fall of 2020, is about how the year of the Gogol Center artists passed without their artistic director Kirill Serebrennikov.[12] In August 2020, Shikhman addressed the issue of burning Siberian forests in her film.[13]

The largest number of views on the channel were obtained by interviews of Irina Shikhman with Maxim Galkin (4.4 million), Nargiz Zakirova (3.9 million) and Laysan Utyasheva (3.3 million).[14]

About her personal life

Information about the person who forced TSU student Irina Shikhman to transfer to a correspondence course at a university in St. Petersburg was not announced anywhere. No, he didn’t force her to do it, to be sure!

She herself, in love and full of desire to be close to her loved one, made this decision. Journalists were never able to find out from Irina what he is doing now, and she does not seek to make a sensation out of the fact of that love. True, the host of Dozhd managed to extract his name from the girl with leading questions - Sergei. But if it weren’t for this rapid departure to St. Petersburg, who knows, there would have been a program “And talk?” in the format in which it exists now? And in general, would there be such a program on YouTube? So all fans of Irina Shikhman should thank this young man for giving her such a sharp turn in changing her place of residence, and, accordingly, in her career development.

Irina Shikhman and Evgeny Kazachkov

Now the host of a popular program on YouTube does not hide the fact that she has a loved one, his name is Evgeny Kazachkov. Evgeniy Borisovich is a playwright, screenwriter, teacher, and curator of the young dramaturgy “Lyubimovka” (he does this together with Mikhail Durnenkov). Irina and Evgeniy often post joint photos online of how they travel and spend time together - they do not hide their relationship and tender feelings for each other from the public. Ira Shikhman, in an interview on the Echo Culture channel, calmly answered the presenter’s tricky question: “Does what your loved one is doing bother you?” “Why should this bother me? He has his favorite thing, I have mine. Our relationship is not only personal, but also partnership - we understand each other perfectly,” was the answer. And Irina also calls her man with tenderness: “My genius, my oxygen!”

How much does an interview with the legendary Doctor Myasnikov cost? Looks like more than the average salary for a doctor

Journalist and blogger Irina Shikhman told how much an interview with Alexander Myasnikov costs. Since April, the doctor has been appointed official speaker on coronavirus. But, it seems, he is in no hurry to communicate with people - according to Shikhman, for the sake of an interview with Myasnikov, a popular program on YouTube would have to give almost 90 thousand rubles.

Journalist Irina Shikhman spoke about the situation with Dr. Myasnikov on May 8 in an episode of the show “Should I Talk?..” The blogger said that she wanted to receive official comments about the coronavirus from the Ministry of Health and the Moscow City Hall. But the departments did not respond to the letters.

Journalist Irina Shikhman, host of the show “Should we talk?..”

Then Shikhman and her colleagues called the head doctor of City Clinical Hospital No. 71, Alexander Myasnikov. After all, it was he who was appointed head of the information center for monitoring the situation with coronavirus in mid-April. And the people he was supposed to be giving information to were tense about his candidacy.

As it turned out, not in vain, because Myasnikov’s answer was strange. His representative asked for an impressive fee - for just half an hour of an interview on Skype.

Read on Medialeaks People have learned the truth about Tom and Jerry, and they want to cry. All this time there was one real hero in the cartoon

And then we decided to call the person who was appointed chief of communication with the media at the coronavirus headquarters - Dr. Alexander Myasnikov. He transferred us to his assistant, and he, in turn, said that a Skype interview - 30 minutes - would cost us 88 thousand rubles.

When asked why Alexander Myasnikov should receive such a sum, his assistant answered - for the time spent. Shikhman was surprised by this: Myasnikov’s new position seems to imply that he must inform people. At the same time, the doctor very willingly participates in various television shows, including often performing with Vladimir Solovyov.

Open Media has already contacted the doctor himself. In the telegram channel, the publication reported that Myasnikov, according to him, knows nothing about the conversation between his assistant and Shikhman.

I'm trying to contact him [the assistant]. I don't know anything about this yet. I would already be a millionaire!

Myasnikov’s relationship with coronavirus is ambiguous. For a long time, the doctor assured that Russians had “zero chances” of becoming infected with it. Later he changed his mind - but this required the most radical thing that could happen.

However, now the doctor is really informing people about the fight against COVID-19. Alexander Myasnikov showed on Instagram what the “red zone” of the hospital looks like. But the spectacle turned out to be such that his attempts to calm people down, it seems, will no longer work.

Interesting Facts

1. Irina is often asked about her chic and unusual hair color: is she naturally that red? “Yes, this is my natural hair color,” the presenter always answers, clarifying: “My grandfather on my mother’s side, Anatoly Grigorievich, he is red, covered in freckles, so my hair is hereditary.”
2. An indirect explanation about Irina Shikhman’s supposedly fantastic income: as she told Ekho Moskvy at the end of 2019, she has an apartment on the outskirts of the city, at that moment with an unpaid mortgage, with an area of ​​38 square meters. meters.
3. In August 2019, the channel “And talk?” opened the season with an issue about fires in Siberia, incorrectly ignoring, according to fans of “hot” topics, protest rallies in Moscow. When asked why fires and not rallies, Shikhman replied: “Siberia is my homeland, the topic was very important to me. And they already said a lot about the rallies on TV - what could we add?”
4. “Sobyanin's Indulgence” is how the Moscow Media holding is called on the Zavtra resource, where the project “Should we talk?” was implemented. You can’t deny wit to those who call Dudya’s project “the transfer of the fugitive criminal Khodorkovsky”!
5. Irina Shikhman’s haters accuse her of imitating Dudya’s project, resting on Yuri’s laurels, shamelessly copying the style of his stories and manner of communicating with guests. Irina categorically denies this. Moreover, she said many times that Dud conducts his programs better and more professionally: “He is so confident - I would like his confidence, I am always terribly worried!”
6. At a time when very young girls straighten their busts, noses, ears, and indulge in Botox and fillers, Irina Shikhman, in her thirties with a ponytail, is a model of naturalness and youth. Even if she has makeup, it gives the impression of almost complete absence of it on her face.
7. Irina Shikhman is not only a talented journalist and an excellent presenter. She cooks wonderfully: “I’m crazy in terms of the kitchen, I have so many kitchen gadgets that everything doesn’t fit in the kitchen,” excerpt from an interview. She knits great, and who knows - what other purely feminine talents she has that are not yet known to the public?

First big interview: NILETTO visiting Irina Shikhman

The guest of the new episode of the YouTube show “Should we talk?” with Irina Shikhman became NILETTO, a participant in the “Songs” project on TNT and the author of the hit “Lyubimka”.

NILETTO

- creative pseudonym of
Daniil Prytkov
, who quickly burst into the domestic charts after participating in the
“Songs” project on TNT
.
The song “Lyubimka”
became the main hit of this winter.
The video has 48 million views on YouTube,
and the song ranks fourth in the Yandex.Music chart and 11th in the Apple Music ranking.

Irina Shikhman

interviewed

NILETTO at the peak of his popularity . She found out how a simple guy from Yekaterinburg, who still dresses in second-hand stores and buys shawarma, became a real star.

Danya talked about his parents - simple builders, who still do not fully realize how popular their son is, and about how his interest in music and dancing developed. The singer shared that he dropped out of university in his third year and did not serve in the army - all this only distracted him from what was really interesting.

NILETTO paved the way to the top of the charts on his own, without sponsors or producers. With the advent of fame, his life did not acquire the trappings of stardom: he said that he continued to buy things in second-hand stores, live in a wooden house with his mother, and record songs on a microphone for 9,000 rubles. “Given the current situation with Tik Tok and the Internet in general, any track of any quality can become a hit. Therefore, it makes no sense to give a lot of money to professionals to mix a song,”

suggested the author of the super hit. The performer spent 20,000 rubles on the promotion of “Lyubimka”.

NILETTO showed Irina Shikhman his favorite places in Moscow

When asked about his personal life, Daniil made it clear that the main hit, like most lyrical songs, is dedicated to his girlfriend. They have been dating for eight years, and they have a very difficult relationship, which can just be described with the words “there is a war between us, there is shooting between us.” Despite the fact that the couple is now together, the girl has to put up with increased female attention and the young man’s busy work schedule, because of which they almost never see each other. Danya also admitted that he is a monogamist - he takes relationships very seriously and spent several years to find a girl whom he could love.

When Shikhman asked whether he was afraid of becoming a “one-hit hero,” the performer admitted that he had no such fear. “For me, music is not a sport. For me, the top charts are not a sporting competition, the main thing for me is to find my audience and for people to listen to my songs."

.