Investigative journalist and The Insider Live host Andrey Zakharov added to Russia’s wanted list

Cover photo: Screenshot of “Proslushka” on The Insider Live's YouTube channel

The Russian Interior Ministry has placed investigative journalist Andrey Zakharov, a host on The Insider’s YouTube channel The Insider Live, on its wanted list, according to a report by the independent publication Mediazona, citing the ministry's database.

According to Mediazona, the main reason for Zakharov being declared wanted were his posts on his personal Telegram channel, dated March 6 and 13, with announcements for episodes of “Proslushka” (lit. “The Wiretap”) — a program hosted by the journalist and broadcast on The Insider’s Russian-language YouTube channel The Insider Live where he interviews investigative reporters about their work.

The case is being investigated by the Russian Investigative Committee’s regional branch in St. Petersburg.

The all-points bulletin on Zakharov from Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs did not specify the nature of Zakharov’s alleged offense or list the article of the Criminal Code connected with the accusation. However, Zakharov earlier became the subject of a criminal investigation for “evading to fulfil his responsibilities” as a “foreign agent,” Mediazona notes. Zakharov himself also suggested that the development is related to this case.

“It’s 99% certain I’m wanted in the foreign agent case, where I was recently brought in as a defendant,” the journalist wrote on Telegram.

Zakharov was labeled a “foreign agent” by Russia's Ministry of Justice on October 8, 2021. In December of that same year, Zakharov left Russia over “unprecedented surveillance” following his designation.

News of the criminal case against Zakharov first emerged in April this year, when law enforcement officers searched the home of Ksenia Klochkova, one of Zakharov's former colleagues and a journalist of the St. Petersburg-based news website Fontanka. Fontanka confirmed that the investigative actions were carried out as part of a criminal case against Zakharov, who worked at the publication until 2016. Klochkova appeared in the case as a witness.

In 2023, Zakharov faced administrative action twice for distributing content not marked with the “foreign agent” label and was fined for not submitting itemized financial reports on his earnings and spending to Russia's Ministry of Justice, which he is obliged to do as a “foreign agent.”

Throughout his journalistic career, Zakharov has worked for Fontanka, RBC, the BBC Russian Service, and the investigative website Proekt.

In November 2020, while working for Proekt, he broke the story about President Vladimir Putin’s alleged mistress and their purported extramarital daughter.

Russia’s law on “foreign agents,” first enacted in 2013 to target NGOs and repeatedly expanded to include media organizations and individuals, requires those the government deems to be “under foreign influence,” along with those that simply receive external funding, to label their content with a 24-word disclaimer saying it was produced by a “foreign agent.”

Under the law, anyone receiving funds from abroad can be labeled a “foreign agent” — even if they do not act under foreign direction. Nearly all reputable human rights organizations and many independent media outlets in Russia have been compelled to register as “foreign agents” under the law. The law’s expansion has meant that every single public message — down to each social media post — must be marked. This includes posts made years ago, before the designation was applied to the outlets in question.

On July 23, 2021, Russia’s Ministry of Justice declared The Insider a “foreign agent.” At the time, The Insider was the 29th media outlet added to the list.

Several months later, in December 2021, the law was used to shut down International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center — two of Russia’s leading human rights groups. Both lawsuits focused on allegations that Memorial had repeatedly failed to comply with the “foreign agents” law. Memorial was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Ales Bialiatski from Belarus and the Center for Civil Liberties from Ukraine.

Human Rights Watch has called the Russian law “a crucial part of the web of repressive legislation adopted in recent years to stifle civil society.”