As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic information about the USSR,[3] Interfax was formed in September 1989, during Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost period, by Mikhail Komissar and his colleagues from international broadcasting station 'Radio Moscow', a part of Soviet Gosteleradio system.

This saw the agency gain prominence in major western media, a position strengthened by its coverage of the 1991 August Putsch and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[6] Interfax also opened subsidiaries across the post-Soviet states, first in Ukraine (1992), Belarus (1993) and Kazakhstan (1996), and later in Azerbaijan (2002),[7] during this time bringing the number of local offices across the regions of Russian Federation to 50.

This was followed by the opening of London-based 'Interfax Europe Ltd.' (1992), 'Interfax Germany GmbH', based in Frankfurt (1993), and the 'Interfax News Service Ltd.' in Hong Kong (1998).

[13] Since 2001, Interfax has collaborated with Business Wire, which distributes corporate regulatory disclosures and press releases.