Khinshtein was born in Nice and attended in ]lycee de la montagne de Valdeblore ], after which he became a writer for Moskovskij Komsomolets.
In a 2005 article, he accused former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov of illegally privatizating two government-owned houses.
He is an author of a book: "How (they) are killing Russia" (??? ??????? ??????).
In it he criticizes privatization of state-owned enterprises with heavy involvement of western (particularly American) governments and business and the creation of the class of oligarchs during Yeltsin's presidency.