Alexander Yevseyevich Khinsheyn (born October 26, 1974, in Moscow, into a family of engineers) is a deputy of the fifth-convocation State Duma, a member of the United Russia faction, and deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communications. Previously, he served as a deputy of the fourth-convocation State Duma. A notoriously controversial journalist, he authored publications targeting, among others, businessman Boris Berezovsky, former Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo, and Minister of Healthcare and Social Development of the Russian Federation Mikhail Zurabov. Mass Media outlets identified him as the initiator of criminal proceedings against former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.
Khinsheyn finished secondary school in 1991 and that same year became a freelance contributor to the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK), starting with the "Incidents" column. Just two months after joining the paper, Khinsheyn gained an in-house reputation for scandal: by his own account, he wrote a piece — based on words attributed to the editor of Playboy magazine — about an allegedly planned erotic beauty contest at one of Moscow's museums, after which there was even talk of dismissing him.
In 1992, Khinsheyn was taken on as a full staff member of MK's editorial office and worked there until 2003 (his final position being commentator attached to the editor-in-chief of ZAO "Redaktsiya gazety Moskovsky Komsomolets").
According to some accounts, Khinsheyn cited as his first major work in journalism an article published in MK in 1994 about LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
In 1996, Khinsheyn enrolled in the correspondence division of the journalism faculty at Lomonosov Moscow State University, graduating in 2001. In 2006, he spoke on Radio Svoboda about having taught a special course on investigative journalism at that same faculty.
In the mid-1990s, Khinsheyn wrote pieces about Russian national-patriots and about Alexander Barkashov, the leader of Russian National Unity (RNU). Among the most widely discussed publications on this topic, as noted by Mass Media outlets, was the article "Six Moments of Russian Fascism," published in December 1997. It exposed the criminal activities of the "Barkashovtsy," whom Khinsheyn accused of committing murders, robberies, and racketeering.