Roman Anin

Roman Anin is an investigative reporter who has shed light on Russia’s rampant corruption and demonstrated how it reaches far beyond the country’s borders.

He began his career in 2006 as a sports writer for the daily Novaya Gazeta but was soon moved to the newspaper’s investigative unit, where he uncovered scandal after scandal. His reports have revealed corruption and cronyism in the military, politics and business, including construction contracts for the Sochi Olympic Games.

Five journalists at Novaya Gazeta have been murdered for their work since 2000, but Anin has continued to investigate and document high-level corruption in Russia and globally through his work with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Anin’s investigative work over a five-year period led to documents and data showing that nearly $1 billion had vanished from Russia’s budget. It ended up in a maze of offshore accounts and shell companies throughout Europe.

His work also led to investigative reports in the Financial Times, the BBC and Sveriges Television (SVT), Sweden’s public broadcaster. SVT collaborated with Anin on a story that revealed corruption in a deal between Swedish telecom TeliaSonera and the daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. The report led to the resignation of the telecom’s CEO.

In 2012, he received three of the most prestigious awards in Russian investigative journalism: the Artem Borovik award, the Youlian Semenov award and the Andrey Sakharov award.

Roman Anin majored in journalism at Moscow State University (MSU) and graduated in 2010. After graduating, he studied at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Science as a Ph.D. candidate in global economics.