Russia: Kremlin creeps closer to media domination?
Metals magnate Alisher Usmanov has acquired ZAO Kommersant Publishing House for allegedly $200 million. Several sources suggest that the Kremlin might be behind the deal.
Kommersant Publishing House is one of the largest in Russia, fourth or fifth by turnover. Together with influent magazines it publishes the eponymous business daily, noted for its critical reporting on the Kremlin. The company’s former owner Badri Patarkatsishvili, had acquired it in February from Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky. Berezovsky, who lives in London as a political refugee, said at the time that he was selling Kommersant in order to protect it from Kremlin “political pressure”.The newspaper, with a daily print run of about 115.000 copies, has so far kept its critical position in news coverage that involved the Kremlin, while other Russian papers have pulled back.
General director of Ashet Filipaki Shkulev Publishing House Viktor Shkulev commented that “Today it was important for the state to pry Kommersant from the hands of its former owner and transfer it to someone it will be more comfortable for them to work with.”
People sustaining that Usmanov is particularly close to the Kremlin use as evidence the fact that he is simultaneously general director of Gazprominvestholding, subsidiary of state gas monopoly Gazprom, and co-owner of Metalloinvest, which unites the Mikhailovsky mining enterprise. “They let Alisher Usmanov do business freely in Russia,” Pavel Gusev, general director of Moskovsky Komsomolets Publishing House.
Usmanov - according to Forbes magazine the 25th richest person in Russia, with a net worth of 2,6 billion dollars – allegedly declared considering the acquisition of Kommersant just a good business deal. He strongly denied the involvement of Kremlin in his decision: “No one asked me to buy the publisher, although I should say that my purchase of it was not against the wishes of the authorities".
International observers such as Freedom House claim that press freedom has substantially declined under President Putin, during whose office several national media outlets have been purchased by the state or Kremlin-friendly buyers.
Russian press professionals declare that Novaia Gazeta and Novié Izvestia, together with the radio Echo de Moscou, are the only independent press operators left in Russia aside from business newspaper Vedemosti, which is protected by its relations with Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Sources:
Kommersant through Ifra Executive News Service, Turkishpress, Interfax, Chennelnewsasia
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