[A-List] Russian news media

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Kremlin-backed group wins licence for TV station
By David Stern in Moscow and Stefan Wagstyl in London
Financial Times: March 28 2002

A group of influential Russian businessmen headed by Anatoly Chubais -
and discreetly backed by the Kremlin - on Wednesday won a bitterly
contested battle for the broadcasting licence of Russia's last national
independent television station.

The result will increase the diversity of media ownership in Russia by
putting TV6, a privately owned national television channel
controversially closed down in January, back on the air.

But Kremlin officials will have some influence over its affairs through
the presence in the winning consortium of Yevgeny Primakov, the former
prime minister and head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, who joined
the bidding group at the Kremlin's behest.

The committee overseeing a tender for the licence announced that
Media-Sotsium had beaten 12 other competitors to take over TV6's
frequency.

Media-Sotsium is headed by Yevgeny Kiselyov, TV6's main anchorman and
its former general director. Its other leaders include Mr Chubais, head
of UES, the Russian power company, and a former first deputy prime
minister.

Mr Chubais said: "The plan is to design a TV channel which is
independent of the state. We are backing it with business leaders
because there's no way of being independent without money. It's a
victory for free speech in Russia."

The announcement of Media-Sotsium's victory caps a turbulent selection
process, which was set off by TV6's sudden closure in January after
Lukoil, the oil company which owned 15 per cent, secured a insolvency
order.

The move was widely interpreted in Moscow as an attack by the Kremlin on
Boris Berezovsky, TV6's 75 per cent shareholder and the exiled
businessman and former politician, who is an outspoken critic of
President Vladimir Putin.

TV6 became the country's only national broadcaster in independent hands
after gas giant Gazprom last year took control of NTV, the media
powerhouse once controlled by Vladimir Gusinsky, the media magnate
living in self-imposed exile.

Full article at:
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT33W0ZLBZC&live=true&tagid=ZZZAFZAVA0C&subheading=europe

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx