Please join the Harriman Institute, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and the Columbia Journalism School for a talk with the Harriman Institute’s 2024 Klebnikov Civil Society Fellow Andrei Zakharov. Moderated by Keith Gessen.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most Russian independent journalists have moved into exile. Like independent journalists from Iran and Hong Kong, they have to operate from abroad. How do independent Russian journalists reach their audiences? Do they have an audience at home? Do they have any influence on what is happening inside Russia where most Western social media outlets are blocked? How do independent Russian journalists finance their media initiatives when contributing funds to them from Russia is often prohibited? In short, do independent Russian journalists have a future in journalism?

Andrei Zakharov, a digital and investigative journalist, has been selected as the Harriman Institute’s Klebnikov Civil Society Fellow for 2024. Mr. Zakharov worked at Fontanka.ru in St. Petersburg as a news reporter and economy section editor before joining RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) Magazine as an investigative reporter in 2016. He moved from RBC Magazine to the BBC Russian Service in 2018 and has contributed investigative journalism pieces for Proekt Media (2020 and 2023). More recently, Mr. Zakharov has focused on his own media projects (a Telegram channel, a podcast, and live streams) and has participated in joint investigative projects with different media organizations. Mr. Zakharov is the author of the book “Crypto. How Cypherpunks, Programmers and Rogues Bound Russia With Blockchain” (2023).

Event Video

Image: “The Motherland is listening to you” by Vasya Lozhkin