Reuters - 09.04.2003

 

 

 

 

Russian Billionaire Buys Influential Paper

Khodorkovsky Has Fought With Kremlin

MOSCOW - (Reuters) A fund led by Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is at odds with the Kremlin, said Thursday it had bought an influential weekly and hired a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin to run it. 

The announcement by the charity fund Open Russia that it had acquired the right to publish the weekly Moskovskiye Novosti (Moscow News) came two days after Putin confirmed Dec. 7 as the day for parliament elections. 

Open Russia said in a statement it had appointed as the newspaper's editor-in-chief Yevgeny Kiselyov, a top television investigative journalist known for sharp criticism of Kremlin policies under Putin. 

Khodorkovsky, Russia's leading oil billionaire and chief executive officer of the YUKOS oil giant, is involved in a conflict with the Kremlin after the arrest of one of his top business associates Platon Lebedev on theft charges. 

Analysts say Khodorkovsky is the real target in the affair which they say was instigated by hawks in the Kremlin angry at his declared support for the liberal opposition party Yabloko. 

Putin is expected to easily win the next presidential election in March 2004. Analysts say Khodorkovsky could run for president in 2008. 

The announcement that Open Russia was acquiring Moskovskiye Novosti, once a pioneering pro-perestroika newspaper in the days of reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, seemed likely to lead to speculation that it would be used as a political platform for Khodorkovsky's views. 

Open Russia spokesman Maxim Dbar told Reuters the newspaper would not espouse calls for radical change: "We are not seeking to change ideology by 180 degrees. I would not call today's newspaper a clear opposition newspaper." 

He said Kiselyov would draw up a basic concept for the paper. 

Kiselyov's weekend analytical programs first on NTV, then on TV6 and finally on TVS -- channels critical of Kremlin policy in Chechnya -- were taken off the air, ostensibly because of their financial difficulties. 

Khodorkovsky said last week he believed his foes would not try to take over YUKOS from its current shareholders and added he would keep financing opposition parties ahead of December's parliamentary election.