Независимая газета
Ivan Zassoursky started his career at the age of 17, in the early 1990s, as a reporter for the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In 1993 he became the head of the Economics desk at Nezavisimaya Gazeta. During this time, he completed his studies at the Moscow State University School of Journalism with highest honors. The following year, Zassoursky worked as the development coordinator at . In 1997, he briefly left professional journalism to serve as an advisor to Boris Nemtsov, the first Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. He already had political experience from the 1995 gubernatorial campaign in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.