Aleksandr Hinshteyn Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Columnist of the political department of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" Date of Birth: 26.10.1974 Country: Russia

Alexander Hinstein: Biography

Alexander Yevseyevich Hinstein was born on October 26, 1974, in Moscow, Russia. He was born into a family of engineers. After completing secondary school in 1991, Hinstein became a freelance employee of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" (MK), starting with the column "Incidents." Just two months after joining the newspaper, Hinstein gained notoriety within the editorial staff. According to Hinstein himself, he wrote an article about an alleged beauty contest planned to take place in one of Moscow's museums based on information provided by the editor of "Playboy" magazine. This article almost led to his dismissal. In 1992, Hinstein became a full-time staff member of the MK editorial team and worked there until 2003. He held various positions, with his last position being an observer at the chief editor's office of ZAO "Editorial Board of the newspaper 'Moskovsky Komsomolets'". One of Hinstein's significant early works in journalism was an article published in MK in 1994 about the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky. In 1996, Hinstein enrolled in the correspondence department of the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University named after Lomonosov and graduated in 2001. In 2006, Hinstein mentioned in an interview on "Radio Svoboda" that he taught a special course on investigative journalism at the same faculty. During the mid-1990s, Hinstein published several articles about nationalist-patriots in Russia and the leader of the "Russian National Unity" (RNE) Alexander Barkashov. One of the most prominent publications on this topic was an article titled "Six Moments of Russian Fascism", published in December 1997. The article exposed the criminal activities of the "Barkashovites," whom Hinstein accused of committing murders, robberies, and extortion. Since 1996, Hinstein's publications repeatedly became the cause of political scandals. In the summer of that year, during the presidential election campaign, MK published a sensational transcript of a tape recording of a conversation between members of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's campaign headquarters, Anatoly Chubais, Viktor Ilyushin, and Sergey Zverev (initially, Zverev's voice was mistakenly identified as Sergey Krasavchenko's voice). The conversation took place after the removal of a box containing $500,000 (according to other sources, there were $538,000 in cash) from the White House. Following this publication, the journalist became widely known. In April 1997, a criminal case was opened in relation to the "illegal operations with foreign currency in particularly large amounts" but was eventually closed due to the investigators' failure to identify the owner of the box. In 1998, Hinstein won the annual "Economic Revival of Russia" journalism competition organized by the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and the Union of Journalists of Russia (UJR) as a special correspondent for "Moskovsky Komsomolets." In 1999, Hinstein published a series of articles aimed against entrepreneur Boris Berezovsky and his private security company "Atoll." According to the journalist, "Atoll," initially hired to protect the oligarch and his business, later specialized in surveillance and gathering compromising materials, including on members of the so-called "family" - people from President Yeltsin's closest circle. These investigations by Hinstein began after the confiscation of a large amount of special equipment and materials from "Atoll" by the Moscow East District Department for Combating Organized Crime in the summer of 1998. Hinstein also wrote about the connections between Berezovsky and the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Russia, particularly highlighting the close friendship between Vladimir Rushailo, who held the position of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, and Berezovsky. According to the journalist, it was "under pressure from Rushailo" that the materials seized were returned to "Atoll" by the MIA. In January 1999, after the publication of Hinstein's article, the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia initiated a criminal case and conducted a series of searches at "Atoll," but nothing incriminating was found. Berezovsky chose to discontinue financing the company's security services. In March 1999, "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" reported that "Atoll" employees had submitted a statement to the Prosecutor General's Office requesting the initiation of a criminal case against Hinstein on charges of violating the privacy of individuals, disclosing telephone conversations, and divulging state secrets. They claimed that the journalist presented their company's activities as criminal in his articles. In the end, "Atoll" director Sergey Sokolov filed a lawsuit against Hinstein, demanding that he acknowledge that the journalist used provocative methods and defamation to misinform readers. The case was heard on television rather than in a regular court (broadcast on RTR television channel on May 6, 1999). "Literaturnaya Gazeta" commented that the "TV show did not allow us to see the real situation" since "without necessary expertise, without clarifying complex, tangled questions by legal methods, it is impossible to say who is right and who is not." Nevertheless, a jury acquitted Hinstein (three jurors believed that the journalist did not defame or provoke, while two disagreed). "Literaturnaya Gazeta" noted that even if the verdict had been different, "public opinion would still have been deceived" since the TV broadcast presented a "conclusion based on shifting sands" instead of the truth. In May 1999, a scandal occurred related to the initiation of a criminal case against Hinstein for using deliberately forged documents. According to the media, on May 14, Hinstein was stopped by a traffic police officer on Volokolamskoye Highway for a traffic violation and presented the officer with a special pass that granted him immunity from police checks. He also showed a police officer's identification card in the name of Alexander Matveev. During the vehicle inspection, other identification cards were discovered, including those of a consultant for the secretariat of the head of the Secretariat of the State Duma of Russia, a press secretary of the Moscow Customs Administration, and an assistant to the deputy chairman of the Moscow Regional Duma, Aksakov. Some media sources mentioned that among the documents found on Hinstein, there was also a driver's license issued to him as a resident of Shatura, although he was not actually a resident of the town. According to Hinstein, all these documents belonged to him and were used as "cover documents." The journalist was detained and placed in the detention center of the Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo police department. However, he was released on bail two days later, on May 16. Some media outlets connected Hinstein's release with the personal intervention of "Minister Rushailo" (who only became the Minister of Internal Affairs a few days after this incident, on May 21, 1999). According to Hinstein, the order to release him from prison was given by the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Sergei Stepashin, at the request of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Hinstein wrote that shortly before the official decision was announced, the investigator approached him with a proposal to "close the case due to changing circumstances." Hinstein accepted the offer, stating that he wanted to help the Ministry of Internal Affairs "to avoid being indiscriminately associated with the corrupt leadership of the ministry and to get out of this situation." According to Hinstein, the decision to close the case was influenced by future Russian President Vladimir Putin, "for whom this scandal before the elections was not beneficial," as well as by Luzhkov, who, according to the journalist, "met with Putin and asked for intervention." In connection with Hinstein's criminal case, there were reports in some media outlets about his connections to intelligence agencies. In February 2000, "Kommersant" reported that FSB employees who collaborated with Hinstein were seriously concerned about the criminal charges against him and saw the removal of the Minister of Internal Affairs as the only way to counter this threat. Against the backdrop of the scandal surrounding Hinstein's criminal case, his campaign for office took place. In September 1999, the electoral association VOPD "Spiritual Heritage" nominated Hinstein as a candidate for the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the third convocation from the Moscow University single-mandate electoral district №201. The publication "Versiya" included Hinstein in the list of the most unexpected candidates for the parliamentary elections. Media outlets noted that alongside Hinstein, writer Maria Arbatova and special advisor to the President of the Savings Bank of Russia, Mikhail Zadornov, were also planning to run in the same district. In November 1999, Hinstein was registered as a candidate for the State Duma of the third convocation from the Orehovo-Borisovo electoral district as an independent candidate. In December of the same year, he narrowly lost the elections to General Andrei Nikolaev. In the early 2000s, Hinstein continued to publish "anti-Rushailo" articles, such as "Rushailo's Magic Lamp" (March 31, 2000), "Rushailo's Eagle Wings" (May 12, 2000), and others. In 2001, he published an article about Orlov titled "Black Regent's Legacy," once again calling him the "godfather of police corruption" (according to Hinstein, Orlov left Russia under a false name in 2001). In these articles, Hinstein emphasized that "Rushailo is indebted to Vladimir Rushailo for his entire fate, career, and millions." However, the journalist did not provide a definite answer as to whether Rushailo was aware of his assistant's actions. In 2005, "Izvestia" published an article titled "Hinstein Declares War on the 'Family'," in which it was reported that the journalist was investigating how Vladimir Rushailo, the executive secretary of the CIS, became the owner of a mansion in the Moscow suburb of Arkhangelskoye. Hinstein also expressed suspicions about Rushailo's involvement in an attempted coup in Kyrgyzstan, claiming that it was financed by Berezovsky (according to Hinstein, Rushailo played a role in the financing). In the same year, Hinstein became the author and host of the weekly information and publicistic program "Secret Materials" on TVC channel. The program gained popularity among Russian viewers for its documentary detective style. In the early 2000s, Hinstein continued to publish articles critical of Rushailo, such as "Rushailo's Magic Lamp" and "Rushailo's Eagle Wings."