Mikhail Zygar

Mikhail Zygar is a writer, journalist, filmmaker.

He worked for Newsweek Russia and the business daily Kommersant, covering the conflicts in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Serbia, and Kosovo before becoming founding editor-in-chief of Russia’s only independent news TV channel, Dozhd (TVRain), which provided an alternative to Kremlin-controlled federal TV channels and gave a platform to opposition voices. Zygar won the International Press Freedom Award in 2014.

He is the author of All the Kremlin’s Men, a #1 bestseller in Russia that has been translated into over twenty languages and was called one of “9 books that can help you understand Russia right now” by Time magazine, and The Empire Must Die, a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year.

Mikhail Zygar has openly protested against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now he lives in Berlin and writes a weekly column for Der Spiegel.

His new book War and Punishment, tells the story of how the Russian Empire has oppressed Ukraine since the 17th century. Zygar is trying to dismantle Putin’s traditional imperial narrative and to start de-imperialization of Russian history.