#12 - JRL 7419
Moscow Times
November 14, 2003
Do Papers Take After Their Owners?
By Anna Dolgov
Special to The Moscow Times
Most of Russia's national newspapers have oligarchs behind them, and while some dispute that the ownership has any bearing on editorial policy, the style of coverage often matches the owner's relations with the Kremlin.
The weekly Argumenty i Fakty and daily Trud are controlled by Promsvyazbank, which is believed to be connected to Kremlin-linked banker Sergei Pugachyov.
Trud -- whose name means "labor" and proclaims itself to be a workers' newspaper -- is exceptionally cautious in reporting on national politics, with hardly a critical word about President Vladimir Putin.
Argumenty i Fakty is marked by similar caution and frequent pro-Putin coverage, interspersed with brief, lightly critical stories.
Both papers have potential to influence the Dec. 7 parliamentary vote because of their wide distribution in the regions. Argumenty i Fakty has an average issue readership of more than 7 million, according to a survey by TNS Gallup Media earlier this year.
One of Russia's best-known newspaper titles, Izvestia, is owned by metals magnate Vladimir Potanin through his Prof-Media holding. A moderate daily with a reputation for good writing, Izvestia has been generally loyal to the Kremlin.
This may in part be a reflection of Izvestia's tradition dating back to Soviet days, when it had no choice but to promote the Communist government yet refrained from sliding into the vehemence and doggedness of Pravda.
Prof-Media deputy director Yevgeny Abov said that Izvestia's owners do not interfere in editorial policy. But he conceded that the reason may lie in a wish to distance themselves from the paper to guard against being punished for any critical reporting.
Potanin has been keeping a low profile during the Kremlin's campaign against Yukos shareholders, and Izvestia has given it less coverage than other serious dailies.
Potanin's holding also includes Komsomolskaya Pravda -- one of the most widely read dailies, which attracts readers mostly with its tabloid-style crime reports and human-interest stories.
Gazeta, which has earned a reputation for accurate reporting since it began publishing two years ago, is owned by Vladimir Lisin's Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant. Its founding editor, Raf Shakirov, left last month for Izvestia.
Vedomosti, a business daily, is owned jointly by the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Dutch-owned Independent Media, the parent company of The Moscow Times.
Some of the most critical coverage of the Putin administration has come from Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Noviye Izvestia, three dailies controlled by Boris Berezovsky.
Berezovsky, who lives in exile in London, is wanted in Russia on fraud charges, but Britain has refused to extradite him. He has little reason to fear repercussions and could hardly make his relations with the Kremlin any worse.
"Kommersant is in a very good position because Berezovsky already has nothing to lose," said Ivan Zasursky, head of a research department at Moscow State University's Journalism School.
But Kommersant editor Andrei Vasilyev objected to this view, saying a newspaper with claims to objectivity and independence cannot allow its editorial policy to be affected by the owner's relations with the Kremlin.
"I remember a time -- I was already chief editor then -- when Boris Abramovich had great relations with the Kremlin. ... But one of the newspapers that was the most skeptical in its coverage of the government was Kommersant," Vasilyev said. "And that sometimes strained the editorial staff's relations with the owner."
But government actions against independent media over the past few years and the prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other top Yukos shareholders have stoked fears that critical newspapers owned by oligarchs may be suppressed.
"The whole country and all of business has worries, and in that sense I think we have them, too," Vasilyev said.
The weekly Moskovskiye Novosti was acquired by Khodorkovsky through his Open Russia charity foundation in September. The newspaper, which seems to have gained some depth under its new ownership and new editor Yevgeny Kiselyov, has a core readership of liberal intellectuals, many of whom may already be critical of Putin's more authoritarian tendencies. So Moskovskiye Novosti may already be preaching to the converted.
Moskovsky Komsomolets, or MK, is one of the few major dailies relatively free of outside financial control, with most of its stock owned by Pavel Gusev, who has been the editor since 1983 and oversaw its privatization in the early 1990s.
But Gusev enjoys warm relations with Moscow City Hall, and the paper, which has turned increasingly tabloid-like in recent years, refrains from criticizing Mayor Yury Luzhkov's policies.
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