Outlet profile

Interfax

Russian privately-owned, pro-Kremlin lean

Owned byPrivately owned by senior management; Mikhail Komissar serves as chairman and CEO and is the largest shareholder, with other shares held by company journalists and managers

FundingCommercial wire service — subscription fees from media organizations, financial institutions, and corporate clients; distribution partnerships with Reuters and Bloomberg; financial data services

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

Interfax was founded in September 1989 by Mikhail Komissar and colleagues from Radio Moscow (then part of Soviet state broadcasting) during Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost era, becoming the first non-governmental political and economic news channel in the USSR — distributed originally by fax, which gave the agency its name. In January 1991, state broadcaster Gostelradio attempted to retake control of the fast-growing agency by cutting off its services, but Interfax relocated within hours and continued transmitting from the headquarters of the Russian Supreme Council under Boris Yeltsin, cementing its reputation for independence. Through the 1990s and 2000s, it expanded into a group of affiliated agencies across former Soviet states and struck distribution deals with Reuters, Bloomberg, and Thomson, as well as a rating-agency joint venture with Moody's. Ownership remained concentrated in senior management, with Komissar retaining the largest stake, and the agency was never formally brought under state control. However, operating in an environment where press freedom has declined sharply under Vladimir Putin, Interfax has not consistently challenged official narratives. During Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine beginning in 2022, the agency drew sustained criticism for amplifying Kremlin denials of documented atrocities — including the Bucha massacre — without independent verification. Media Bias/Fact Check rates it as right-center biased, citing support for the Russian government, and assigns it mixed factual reliability due to propaganda promotion and failed fact checks. Interfax thus occupies an ambiguous position: nominally private and commercially independent, but editorially constrained by the political environment in which it operates.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-28; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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