Mikhail Zygar

21.10.2022 added by the Russian Ministry of Justice to the register of media outlets and individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent.

Mikhail Viktorovich Zygar is a Russian writer, director, political journalist, war correspondent, and editor-in-chief of the Dozhd TV channel (2010–2015), and the author of the bestseller All the Kremlin's Men.

He was born on 31 January 1981. As a child, he lived in Angola. He graduated from MGIMO and also studied at Cairo University.

He worked for the Kommersant Publishing House from 2000 to 2009. He specialized in reporting from hot spots. He covered the wars in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine, the revolutions in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, the shooting in Andijan, the unrest in Estonia after the removal of the Bronze Soldier, and the riots in Serbia and Kosovo.

From 2003 to 2009, he taught at MGIMO. He lectured in the course “History of Foreign Journalism,” led a journalist’s workshop, and taught the course “Analytical Journalism.”

In 2005, he took part in compiling Maxim Meir’s collection Central Asia: The Andijan Scenario?

In 2007, he wrote the book War and Myth, which included reports from hot spots.

In 2008, together with Valery Panyushkin, he published Gazprom. Russia’s New Weapon.

In 2009–2010, he worked as editor of the “Country” department and deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine Russian Newsweek.

From October 2010 to 31 December 2015, he was editor-in-chief of the Dozhd TV channel. He oversaw coverage of the protest rallies of the winter of 2011–2012. He was the author and producer of the program Sobchak Live (Ksenia Sobchak repeatedly called Zygar her “chief teacher in journalism”). He hosted the final news program Here and Now (together with Olga Pispanen, Tatyana Arno, Maria Makeeva, and Lika Kremer), the show Top View (together with Ksenia Sobchak), and the program