#6157
[Second Issue of the Day]
#12
Washington Post
March 26, 2002
Kremlin Massages Bid For Television Channel
Moscow Seeks Press Control, Sources Say
By Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Foreign Service
MOSCOW, March 25 -- On Wednesday the Russian government is to award a national broadcasting license in what Kremlin officials have promised will be a fair and open auction. But those with knowledge of the process said the auction will be anything but open.
For weeks, they said, Kremlin aides have been hard at work tailoring a winning bid by Kremlin supporters. The object, said those familiar with the bid, is to portray the Kremlin as a supporter of a free and open press -- but to ensure that the operator of a new national television station does not repeat the sort of anti-government diatribes that turned owners of the last two independent stations into unofficial Kremlin foes.
Supporters of the bid hope it will repair at least some of the political damage wrought by what appeared to be state-orchestrated takeovers of Russia's last two independent television stations in the past year.
The Kremlin-backed bid, the result of weeks of negotiations, is a strange hybrid of Kremlin skeptics and allies; of a dozen business leaders and a noncommercial partnership; and of people viewed as political commissars and champions of an independent press.
Analysts say the complexity of the bid is a sign of the Kremlin's discomfort with a free, commercially controlled press and its struggle to somehow manage it. "The guys who invented this ridiculous scheme don't understand anything," said one of those involved in the bid, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The license became suddenly available in January after what many saw as a Kremlin-inspired court order to liquidate TV-6, a channel controlled by magnate Boris Berezovsky. That drove Berezovsky, a one-time Kremlin insider who has become Putin's harshest critic, out of the broadcast business.
And for the second time in a year, the closing of TV-6 forced a well-known team of journalists, led by Yevgeny Kiselyov, off the air. The journalists resigned en masse last year from their first channel, NTV, after media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky lost control of it to the state-dominated natural gas monopoly, Gazprom.
The Kremlin's press ministry announced it was accepting tender offers for TV-6's license, and it attracted 15 proposals. Due to the Kremlin's handiwork, one proposal from Kiselyov's group is widely considered the leading contender. Other bidders include a subsidiary of Gazprom, a group promising sports programming and at least five companies set up by other journalists or television broadcasters.
Publicly, the Kremlin has taken a hands-off stance. "The Russian government is not going to influence the tender for the right to broadcast on the sixth channel," Alexei Volin, deputy chief of staff of the Russian cabinet, said last month.
In fact, though, Putin's aides were deeply involved in shaping the bid of the TV-6journalists, according to two sources knowledgeable about the discussions. The Kremlin's hand in the contest has become increasingly apparent over weeks of negotiations.
The Kremlin's first move, sources said, was to enlist Anatoly Chubais, a top government official under former president Boris Yeltsin who now heads RAO UES, the state-controlled energy monopoly. Chubais persuaded 12 wealthy businessmen to back Kiselyov's bid.
Leonid Gozman, a top aide to Chubais, said Chubais got involved because he wanted to protect the free press. Chubais, who is also a leader of the left-wing Union of Right Forces political party, said in an interview last month that he was concerned about "political forces not far from Putin" who favor a police state.
Some of the financial backers Chubais recruited are well known for their Kremlin ties, including Roman Abramovich, the wealthy governor of the far eastern region of Chukotka, and Alexander Mamut, a bank owner. Chubais informed each business leader that Putin was in favor of the plan, sources said.
Together, the businessmen and the journalists formed a company called Sixth Channel, withthe journalists controlling 10 percent of the shares. The capital stake was set at $10 million.
Sources said the firm's bid seemed on track until Feb. 27, when Chubais informed Kiselyov that the Kremlin wanted it restructured. The spokesmen for the Kremlin's position were Alexander Voloshin, the chief of presidential administration, and Mikhail Lesin, the press minister.
The sources said Kiselyov was told that Putin wanted the license to go not to a business, but to a noncommercial partnership headed by two people: Putin's political ally, former prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, who now heads the Russian Chamber of Commerce, and Arkady Volsky, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Sixth Channel -- the alliance of businessmen and journalists -- would be nothing but a contractor. The businessmen's contributions would be considered donations, much like the donations that fund Strana.ru, a pro-Kremlin Internet site.
In a meeting a few days later at Primakov's vacation home, Kiselyov rejected the plan, the sources said. The two men ultimately agreed on a compromise that would allow Sixth Channel to join the noncommercial partnership, with one vote.
But at the same time, the Kremlin aides diluted the influence of that vote by adding eight more members to the partnership.
Lesin and Voloshin later briefed Putin on the final arrangement and said he found it acceptable, the sources said.
Whether it will produce independent journalism is another question.
Certain changes are supposed to make it more difficult for the partnership to fire Kiselyov, who will serve as editor in chief. But Kiselyov is taking no bets. "The chances are very high that we will be put under heavy political pressure," he said.
"But we want to try to continue the line of independent journalists in Russia. For the sake of a last chance, we are going to play this game."
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