(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Nobody really took it very seriously. But in March, the Russian government presented a "national five-year plan" in which the goal was to make Russians more patriotic, more proud of the country in which they live.
The five-year plan stated, among other things, that "one must activate the creative potential of authors, researchers, cultural workers and journalists." It should focus on "positive heroes in history," and not least the many heroes from the battlefield – then and now. The journalists should contribute to this work, by focusing on some proud traditions rather than contributing to a "falsification of history that has ended up in pure disinformation."
In short; The task of journalists should be to restore confidence in the state institutions, the military and the government and the ruler of the Kremlin. In other words, Vladimir Putin.
I guess, as I said, no one took it very seriously. A document full of old Soviet phrases and which even bore the name "five-year plan." A plan for national pride, tailored for an authoritarian regime struggling with the aftermath of the Kursk accident and the lack of military victories on the battlefield in Chechnya.
But the patriotic erection work was not just empty words. Now, the Russian state has taken effective control of the country's only truly independent television station; NTV.
Force journalists out
TV2, like a private television station, is in deep financial crisis. It appeals to the oil company Statoil, which gives heavy credits to the TV company against getting a certain percentage of the shares in the TV channel. The money from Statoil comes to TV2 partly as payment for these shares, but also as a loan. When the broadcaster fails to repay the loan, Statoil takes over TV2 forcibly and inserts its own management.
This is done by means of security police units.
In short, this is what has happened to the Russian, independent television channel NTV. Russia's state oil company, Gazprom – the Kremlin's extended arm – claims the company owes them hundreds of millions of dollars, and has therefore seized 19 percent of the shares of the owner and founder of NTV, Vladimir Gusinsky. Thus, Gazprom holds a majority of the shares; the 46 percent they have had all along as well as the 19 percent extra.
The takeover – legal or illegal – of parts of Gusinsky's shareholding took place a few weeks ago. A few days later, on April 3, Gusinsky and his entire loyal leadership were fired by Gazprom. A new editor, Vladimir Kolistikov, is now in place at NTV, together with the new head of the channel; the American-Russian Boris Jordan.
And so on the whole, Gazprom Media, with its chief Alfred Kokh, is now hovering, which will now control NTV almost on behalf of the Russian state and President Vladimir Putin.
The journalists in NTV believe – rightly, probably – that this coup will target the only independent TV channel in Russia that has had nationwide coverage. They have therefore gone to the barricades to preserve the critical and oppositional journalism in NTV – the only channel that has given Russian viewers true information about what is going on in Chechnya – among other things. From the coup on April 3 until April 14, several hundred journalists from the old editorial office barricaded the premises of NTV in Ostankino, while keeping the audience informed of what was happening.
But that was before soldiers of the special forces OMON forced the journalists out on Saturday. Kolistikov and Jordan broke their promises to journalists that they would never take the channel by force. Order has now been restored in NTV, but the channel is 260 journalists poorer and Russia has lost its only critical TV channel.
Went bankrupt
But the matter is more complicated than that. That is to say; Basically, it is just as the journalists claim, that the state via Gazprom has secured control over the latest free TV channel in Russia. But it might not have gone that way if the NTV management had managed to keep the ship afloat financially.
financial transactions in the new Russian market with the bank Most Bank in the lead.
Over the past year, this ship has threatened to crash. Gusinsky has sold off Most Bank and ended his career as a financial speculator in hopes of getting the other leg – the media – up and running again.
It's been bad. In the flagship of the print media, the daily newspaper Sevodnia, For example, the salaries of employees have in effect been halved after Most Bank ingeniously converted the ruble rate against dollars in their payroll payments. In weekly newspapers Ittogi have so far managed to keep going after the advertising market fell to half as a result of the financial crash in 1997. I Radio Echo In Moscow, things have gone better, since the station has never been aimed at the Western advertising market.
All these media have been and are part of Media Most, as NTV also is – still. But Gusinsky's empire is in fact bankrupt, and has been for the past six months. The company failed to pay a $ 211 million installment to CS First Boston in December last year. It owes Gazprom Bank $ 40 million, and the city government of Moscow $ 223 million. In July this year, another installment to CS First Boston of 262 million dollars is due. All of these amounts are guaranteed by Gazprom, which has already paid the first 211 million to CS First Boston.
To put it simply.
Gazprom therefore believes that they are in fact the owners of the television station NTV, and that they will soon be the owners of the entire media empire as well. But – and this is interesting – the oil company will not keep the TV channel, they say. Therefore, Gazprom is no stranger to the idea that CNN is buying into Media Most. Gusinsky has long negotiated with CNN's founder Ted Turner, and an agreement is supposed to have been entered into as well. The difference is that Ted Turner will now have to negotiate with Gazprom, and not with Gusinsky.
If he puts enough money on the table, Gazprom might be interested in getting back the huge sums the company has put out. So far, the offer is $ 225 million for Gusinsky's stake in Media Most.
For the court?
In that case, Vladimir Putin will be saved. No one will be able to accuse the Russian state of taking control of a television station if it invites CNN in. And no one would want to accuse George Soros – of Turner's team – of being dictated to by a fallen superpower.
But the controversy over NTV is by no means over. The journalists threaten to bring the "coup" before all the courts that exist in Russia. And maybe mean seriously, maybe not.
If they do, it is already clear what the outcome will be. The Russian state and the prosecution are one, and Putin – the boss of it all – has made it clear that this is a dispute between different shareholder groups that he does not want to get involved in.
Vladimir Gusinskij. He is charged with manslaughter and financial adultery, and the allegations thrown out by the Kremlin are that the man has left with hundreds of millions of dollars.
Which is a considerable amount.
The investigation of Gusinsky has so far led to a raid on Moscow's main synagogue, in search of evidence that the Jewish community has laundered money for Gusinsky. Vladimir Gusinsky is a Jew, a citizen of both Russia and Israel, and the leader of the Russian Jewish Congress – a subdivision of the World Jewish Congress.
Gusinsky himself has been imprisoned in Spain for the past few months, awaiting the Spanish authorities' processing of extradition to Russia. On Wednesday, the decision came, and it was negative – for Putin.
