Over the past quarter-century, Roman Badanin, co-author with Mikhail Rubin of "The Tsar in Propria Persona: How Vladimir Putin Deceived Us All," conducted numerous investigations into the system built by Vladimir Putin in Russia. A historian by training, Badanin spent 10 years writing in Moscow for Gazeta.ru, then known for its independence, where he served as deputy editor-in-chief. He resigned in 2011 following political pressure, later headed the Russian edition of Forbes magazine and worked for the RBC news agency and the Dojd television channel. In 2018, he launched the website Proekt, which, after publishing investigations into the regime, was placed on the list of "undesirable organizations" and threatened with criminal prosecution. He later created the Agentstvo website, where he has continued in-depth work on the country's elites.

Badanin, who, as early as 2020, underwent interrogations and had his home searched, was designated a "foreign agent" by Russian authorities. He eventually left the country in 2021, a few months before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Now a senior fellow in the international journalism program at Stanford University, he received the Don Bolles Medal from the American NGO Investigative Reporters and Editors for his work supporting freedom of expression.