Boris Zimin

Entrepreneur, philanthropist, patron of the arts. Left Russia in 2004. He was the founder of the Sreda Foundation, which supported independent Russian media. In 2015, the foundation was recognised as a "foreign agent", after which the organisation announced its self-liquidation. He was a member of the board of the Dynasty Foundation for the Support and Development of Russian Fundamental Science. This project was created by Zimin's father - philanthropist Dmitry Zimin, who passed away in 2021. In 2015, "Dynasty" also ceased its activities due to inclusion in the register of "foreign agents". In October 2020, Alexei Navalny revealed that Boris Zimin had paid for a private jet that took the politician after his poisoning from Omsk to Germany. One of the founders of the "Redkollegiya" award in the field of independent journalism. Heads the Zimin Foundation, which has launched several programmes to help students, academics and journalists forced to flee Ukraine and Russia. He has repeatedly spoken out about the war. In January 2023, it became known that a fraud case was opened against Zimin in connection with a deal to alienate shares in the carsharing company BelkaCar Ltd. Zimin considers the case to be politically motivated. On 22nd April 2025, he was sentenced in absentia to nine years' imprisonment. On 14th October 2025, the FSB reported that a case of forcible seizure of power and organisation of a terrorist community had been opened against Zimin and other members of the Anti-War Committee of Russia. The reason was the adoption of the "Berlin Declaration" on the need for a change of power in Russia.