Andrei Soldatov

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Andrei Soldatov (born 4 October 1975 in Moscow, Russia). He currently works as editor of Agentura.Ru and observer of Novaya Gazeta.

He graduated Moscow State social University, journalist department. 1996-1998 - correspondent of Segodnya newspaper. 1998-1999 - staff writer of Kompania journal. September 1999-June 2000 wrote in Segodnya. July 2000 - November 2000 - staff writer of Izvestia. In September of 2000 he has opened with his colleagues the project Agentura.Ru. 2002-2004 - chief of section of Versiya (weekly newspaper).

On 1 November 2002, FSB officers searched the premises of Versiya, reportedly regarding information published in an article by the newspaper on 27 May 2002. However, the editor of Versiya, Andrei Soldatov, believed that this operation against his newspaper was related to a forthcoming article on the storming of the Moscow theatre and freeing of the hostages there on 26 October.

3 November 2002 Europe's media watchdog, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve, has expressed his concern regarding the recent prevailing climate of pressure on the media in Russia. "This attack against an independent media outlet is especially ominous since it happened 24 hours after the Russian Parliament adopted a number of highly restrictive provisions to the Law on Media. Several prominent Russian politicians have declared these amendments as basically initiating censorship in Russia. Under the current circumstances, the search of the premises of a leading weekly raises very serious concerns regarding Russia's commitment to freedom of expression," stressed Freimut Duve.

Duve hopes that the Russian Parliament Federation Council, which will now discuss these amendments, will reject them. He will also appeal to the Russian Government, asking it to ensure that the country's commitments to freedom of the media as a participating State of the OSCE, a family of declared democracies, are fully adhered to. He awaits further information on the situation concerning the weekly, Versiya.

Newsweek on 23 November 2002 quoted this case in article "More Questions Than Answers":

"… Inside Russia, asking too many questions can still be risky. Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov and others from the Versiya newspaper who helped him write a damning report on the FSB's action, are being questioned by a Russian prosecutor. FSB investigators have already confiscated Soldatov's files and computer. Nonetheless, he is still trying to dig for answers. "If there were really so many explosives in the theatre, up to two tons, wouldn't they have evacuated the nearby houses?" asks Soldatov".

In April of 2004 Andrei Soldatov has started to make comments for radio Echo Moskvy as security expert. In July of 2004 he joined weekly Moscow News as secret services observer. He covered Beslan siege for Echo Moskvy and Moscow News.

In December of 2005 Andrei Soldatov has published with Irina Borogan the book “New patriot games. How secret services have been changing their skin 1991-2004”.

Since January 2006 he started to work for Novaya Gazeta.

Soldatov regularly makes comments on terrorism and intelligence issues for Vedomosti, Echo Moskvy, Radio Free Europe, The Moscow Times.