Since 2001,
Roman Badanin has worked for
Gazeta.Ru,
Forbes,
Interfax,
RBK and
TV Rain as editor-in-chief. In 2017, he left the country to study journalism at
Stanford University in
California. In 2018, after graduating from his studies and returning to
Russia, he decided to engage in investigative journalism in the format of an online media, which he had previously done. As of July 2018,
Proekt had 10 employees and its initial budget was 500,000
dollars.
Proekt specialises in investigative journalism. The website of the media publishes text versions of the investigations, on the
YouTube channel the media uploads short documentaries and podcasts. Proekt also posts materials on
Telegram,
VKontakte,
Instagram,
Yandex.Zen,
Twitter and
Facebook. Proekt exists at the expense of donations from its readers and sponsors. Since 2019, after publications about the Russian
paramilitary organisation
Wagner, the journalists of the Project have been under surveillance by the Russian authorities. In 2020, after
The New York Times newspaper won International Reporting Prize,
Proekt said that at least two articles in the winning entry repeated findings of Proekt's articles published a few months before without citing the source. On June 28, 2021,
Proekt announced that they would publish an investigation into the property of the relatives of
Russia's Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev. The next day, Moscow police raided apartments of Roman Badanin, deputy editor in chief Mikhail Rubin and co-founder of
Proekt Maria Zholobova; the police also seized journalistic equipment. Officially, the searches were connected with a 2017 journalistic investigation about Putin's friend, businessman and crime boss
Ilya Traber. Natalia Zviagina, director of the Russian office of
Amnesty International, said the raid is a "part of a systematic cleansing of any critical voices exposing the malpractices of those in power in the country". On July 15, 2021, Russian authorities banned
Proekt and labelled five of its journalists as so-called "
foreign agents".
Proekt became the first news outlet that has been designated as a so-called "
undesirable organisation" in Russia. This designation prohibits the activities of the organisation on the territory of Russia and prescribes sanctions for anyone who supports the organisation. Badanin called the authorities' decision the best recognition. The head of
Meduza's investigation department,
Alexey Kovalev, said that the reason for the ban was
Proekt's investigations into the top officials of the
Kremlin. Russian journalist
Andrey Kolesnikov said that the persecution of
Proekt is a signal to the rest of the media: "See what we can and behave yourself." On 2 June 2023, the
Ministry of Justice of Russia added Proekt and its journalists Roman Badanin, Mikhail Rubin, Ekaterina Arenina, Vitalii Soldatskikh, Mikhail Maglov, Polina Machold, Boris Dubakh, Sofia Manevich to the so-called list of "
foreign agents". It was the first an entity was added to the so-called "list" after it had already been banned under so-called "undesirable organisation"
statute. == Notable investigations ==