Overview

Important Stories, or IStories is an independent media outlet founded by well-known investigative journalists from Russia Roman Anin (also the Editor-in-Chief) and Olesya Shmagun. They are veterans of Russian investigative journalism and received the Pulitzer for their reporting on the #PanamaPapers. From the very beginning, we’ve contributed to major international investigations like the #PandoraPapers, #OpenLux, Project Cassandra, and more. Our partners include OCCRP, ICIJorg, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and New York Times. We’ve specialized in investigations about corruption and data-driven stories about Russia. Now we investigate war crimes as well. Due to military censorship in Russia and the many years of prison terms that threaten our authors for writing the truth about the war, Important Stories was forced to relocate the editorial office abroad. For numerous investigations into corruption and war crimes, the Russian authorities recognized us as an "undesirable organization" and a "foreign agent." Despite this pressure, we continue to work.