#6159
#12
Former 'Oligarchs' Still Involved in Russian Media Contest
Rossiyskaya Gazeta
22 March 2002
Report by Vladimir Lakshinskiy: "Down to Two Again"
Former oligarchs are trying to ignite a new information war over TV-6.
The "divide and rule" principle can probably be seen as a record-holder in terms of longevity in world politics and, it seems, in terms of effectiveness in the short-term waveband. If we follow carefully the meanderings of Russian politics in recent years it is easy to see that the majority of "rumbles" between oligarchs fit perfectly into this pattern.
Of course, recently we have had to leave such "devices" behind, if only because the political situation in contemporary Russia is gravitating toward relative stabilization, and hence to a stretching of political processes in terms of time. A short-term effect no longer brings sufficient dividends.
Nevertheless, the people who until quite recently were known as oligarchs evidently find it hard to renounce tried and tested ways, and it doesn't matter that Russian reality now excites them considerably less. We are talking, of course, about "disgraced media magnates" Berezovskiy and Gusinskiy.
No one can seriously have believed that they had finally abandoned the big-time Russian "media politics" connected with the battle for Channel Six. There are people involved in that battle who are linked to the former oligarchs by cooperation over many years. The battle is bringing at least one of them -- Berezovskiy -- quite palpable political dividends. Finally, direct representatives of the oligarchs are taking part in the battle, namely Ultrakomtrast ZAO [Closed Joint-Stock Company], which is organized by former NTV staffers and "Kiselev team" members at TV-6 Pavel Korchagin and Andrey Norkin with the support of TPG Aurora, and according to some reports the latter is backed by Gusinskiy.
As of today there are two main claimants to "button six": The "TV-VI" NVK [Independent Broadcasting Corporation] ZAO (Merezhko-Moskvin-Kucher, with the backing of Lukoil-Garant NPF [Independent Pension Fund]); and the noncommercial "Media-Sotsium" partnership (Primakov and Ye. Kiselev, with the backing of a number of well-known business people). These are the teams whose actions are of greatest interest in the run-up to the competition. And it is between these teams that a quite serious information war could erupt.
The point is that Media-Sotsium representatives have recently been making attempts to set up contacts with leading TV-VI staffers with the aim of persuading them to leave the television company and so undermining the TV-VI NVK ZAO's participation in the upcoming competition for the right to broadcast on the sixth channel.
By all accounts a key figure in these contacts is Aleksandr Levin, who had several meetings last week with one of the TV-VI NVK chiefs. Aleksandr was born in 1960 in Moscow. He graduated from the All-Union State Cinematography Institute film production department as a specialist film director. He worked as a director at the Tsentrnauchfilm studios. In 1993 he became general director of the DiXi cinema association and produced a number of projects on federal television stations: "Natsionalnyy Interes" [The National Interest"] for RTR, "Protsess" [The Trial] for ORT, and "Kukly", "Itogi" and "Glas Naroda" [The People's Voice"] for NTV. From April 1999 he was head of production at the NTV television company. From May 2001 he was in charge of production at "MNVK" [Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation] ZAO (TV-6). He is currently general director of "Shestoy Kanal" [Channel Six] ZAO.
Clearly Levin has not just come in "off the street". He is general director of Shestoy Kanal ZAO, a key participant in sixth-channel contender Media-Sotsium. Regardless of whether Levin is acting on his own initiative, on the instructions of Shestoy Kanal ZAO or in the interests of third parties, therefore, it is the noncommercial partnership that is responsible for his actions.
If the Kiselev team's real task is actually to try to eliminate the TV-VI team from the competition (remember the clumsy attempts to put pressure on Merezhko and Moskvin through publications, telephone calls and, finally, the incomprehensible story about stolen documents), then Yevgeniy Primakov is going to find himself in quite a difficult situation. Hitherto he has been known as a principled opponent of "information warfare" and the use of "dirty tricks" in mass media operations.
It would also be interesting to know what the organizers of the telephoned comments were reckoning to achieve and what Levin's current actions are aimed at. At prompting retaliation from the Lukoil structures? Information warfare between the main claimants to the sixth channel is, after all, primarily to the advantage of the third claimant.
Which means Gusinskiy and Berezovskiy, the former direct bosses of Levin and his friends from the Kiselev team. Why necessarily former, however? Levin still remains one of the leaders of NTV International, which belongs to Gusinskiy, and in recent weeks he has made frequent visits to a number of Western countries, including Switzerland, where Gusinskiy is now said to be resident.
At the start of the year Gusinskiy was already wanting to buy up the Kiselev team, previously sold to Berezovskiy, via the TPG Aurora company's purchase of shares in MNVK ZAO (TV-6). But the deal fell through because of the court ruling on the television company's liquidation.
Now he is making a renewed attempt. Since the public conflict was provoked between Media-Sotsium and TV-6 the competition commission is left with no option but to vote for the last outwardly decent team -- Korchagin and Norkin and their and their "major Western investor", which will obviously include Kiselev and the remnants of his team. "I've parted company with Kokh, I've parted company with Alekperov, and I'm also parting company with you, Primakov...".
Back to the Top Next Article
- Back to the Top -