Timakova began working as a journalist in 1995 whilst studying at Moscow State, where she was a political journalist for "Moskovsky Komsomolets". In 1996, Timakova was part of the Presidential pool of journalists and she covered the election campaign of first Russian President Boris Yeltsin for the 1996 presidential election. In 1997, Timakova was a reporter and then senior political correspondent at "Kommersant", and worked for the publishing house until 1999. In 1999, Timakova was the political correspondent for Interfax.