Roman Anin
Roman Anin is a human rights defender and journalist. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of iStories media outlet, which publishes investigative pieces on Russia’s rampant corruption and various human rigths violations. Roman Anin has received some of the most prestigious awards in Russian investigative journalism, including the Artem Borovik award, the Youlian Semenov award and the Andrey Sakharov award. He was also a member of the Panama Papers investigative team that received the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2017.
The environment for the work of human rights defenders (HRDs) in the Russian Federation is difficult, especially for those who defend and promote the rights of LGBTI people, ethnic and religious minorities, refugees, as well as activists of the North Caucasus and the unlawfully annexed Crimean Peninsula. HRDs are often subjected to acts of harassment, surveillance, physical attacks, threat, raids and searches on their offices and homes, slander and smear campaigns, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment, as well as violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. There have also been cases where HRDs have been murdered as a result of their work.
