Washington Post online - 07.27.2000

 

(Read NCSJ's full Goussinsky coverage)

The Washington Post

Charges Dropped Against Russian Media Mogul

By David Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 27, 2000; 12:03 PM

MOSCOW, July 27 – Fraud charges against Russian media baron Vladimir Gusinsky were dropped today following months of pressure tactics including searches, property seizure, arrest and imprisonment, and the criminal investigation – which Gusinsky had called a political vendetta – appeared to collapse.

In a letter to Gusinsky from a top prosecutor in the case, Vladimir Nikolayev, the prosecutor's office announced that the criminal case against Gusinsky was being closed, the travel restrictions on him lifted, and the seizure of his property canceled. The letter was sent late Wednesday and made public today.

The prosecutor's letter referred to the lack of evidence of a crime but did not provide details.

Gusinsky, the proprietor of NTV, Russia's major independent television channel, and one of the wealthy tycoons who have exerted enormous influence over Russian politics in recent years, flew out of the country to visit his family in Spain. Sources said it was not clear when he would return.

A spokesman for Gusinsky, Dmitry Ostalsky, denied that the tycoon had made a deal with the Kremlin for dropping the charges.

The sudden and unexpected closure of the case came after protests from some in the West that President Vladimir Putin was attempting to restrict freedom of the press. However, Gusinsky's case had not attracted high-level protests at the recent meeting of Putin and leaders of the Western industrial democracies in Okinawa.

It was not immediately clear why the prosecutor's office dropped the case after numerous high-profile searches of Gusinsky's conglomerate, Media-Most, and a statement by the top prosecutor, Vladimir Ustinov, that there was evidence implicating Gusinsky in criminal activity.

The case involved the privatization of a St. Petersburg television company, Russkoye Video. Gusinsky, who was jailed for three nights in June, has denied any wrongdoing in the deal. Prosecutors said the investigation of the television case would continue but without focus on Gusinsky.

Gusinsky had called the case a politically inspired campaign against him by Putin because his media outlets had been critical of the Kremlin. Putin has personally participated in an effort to tighten the screws on Gusinsky's business interests, which are heavily indebted. Putin was reportedly angry at the portrayal of him in a satirical puppet show about politics broadcast on Gusinsky's NTV television channel, and in general at critical coverage of his prosecution of the war in Chechnya and other matters.

The closure of the case is a major break for Gusinsky but does not end his financial troubles. He still has large outstanding debts, including to the natural gas monopoly Gazprom.

Although Gusinsky's NTV had earlier covered his arrest and the investigation as a major news event, the collapse of the case was given extremely low-key treatment tonight, near the end of the news broadcast after a story about Putin's remarks to a handful of new ambassadors.

The case was closed on the eve of a meeting scheduled for Friday between Putin and about 18 leading Russian businessmen. The session grew out of concerns among the industrialists and financiers that the Kremlin might attempt to revise the outcome of privatizations over the last decade in which many Soviet factories were sold off cheaply.