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Russia
should abide by ruling on Gusinsky - ombudsman
interfax.ru, May 21, 2004
"We should treat the European court's ruling simply: the European
court has issued this ruling and we need to carry it out,"
Lukin said at a news conference in the Interfax main office on Friday.
 TV Network Resisting Hostile Moves in Russia
By Michael Wines
The New York Times, April 5, 2001
The day after Gazprom said it had gathered the backing of 50.5 percent of NTV's shares and
replaced its management, the network's journalists assembled in on-camera defiance. On
television screens, the bright red word "protest" was superimposed over the white NTV logo.
State-backed group takes control of Russian TV
independent
From Giles Whittell in Moscow
The Times, Wednesday, April 4, 2001
The future of NTV, the only station that regularly criticises Mr Putin, was in grave doubt after a
boardroom coup. Yevgeni Kiselyov, the director-general, one of Russia’s best-known television
faces, was replaced by Boris Jordan, 33, a millionaire US-born invest- ment banker who lacks
any hands-on media experience. Throughout the 1990s NTV, a channel that was built from
scratch by Vladimir Gusinsky and a team of journalists, provided Russia’s only television news
that was not under close Kremlin scrutiny. Mr Gusinsky is under house arrest in Spain as
Moscow attempts to have him extradited on fraud charges.
NTV Managers Ousted in Gazprom Coup
By Andrei Zolotov Jr., Staff Writer
"The Moscow Times", Wednesday, Apr. 4, 2001. Page 1
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky: "This is a kind of GKChP with the participation of foreign capital.
Everything we have heard in the Kremlin today [Putin's address] has neither content nor sense. The real
course [of the government] has been demonstrated here with NTV. The power is not interested in having
independent mass media in Russia."
Kremlin Moves In on Independent TV
By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service, Wednesday, April 4, 2001; Page A01
A state-controlled company took over the NTV network today and
installed its own management, signaling an end to the independence of the only major television
news outlet outside the Kremlin's orbit.
...Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the Yabloko party, compared it to the 1991 attempted Communist
putsch against Gorbachev, calling the Gazprom action a "coup with the participation of foreign
capital."
Speech of Chairman of the Yabloko Association Grigory
Yavlinsky at the meeting to protect NTV and the freedom of speech
Moscow, Pushkin Square
March 31, 2001
Reformist politicians, soap-opera stars and even a world champion gymnast joined the rock-concert
protest to pressure President Vladimir Putin's government to call off its 10-month financial and
legal campaign against NTV, the only real source of television news in Russia not under the
Kremlin's control.
"We defended freedom in 1991, and we will do the same thing in 2001," Vladimir Lukin, a member
of the State Duma, told the crowd.
Crowd Gathers to Protect Russia's Freedom of Speech
By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service, Saturday, March 31, 2001; 12:15 PM
Even so, Putin appears to have public support across Russia to do whatever he wishes with NTV.
One recent public opinion survey found 57 percent support the return of censorship in Russia, while
a poll last year said 52 percent thought NTV would be better if it were controlled by the
government.
And even in the large crowd today, not all the bystanders were supporters. One woman, young son
in tow, glared on the side of the square at the protesters. 'It doesn't matter if they shut NTV down,'
said the woman, who gave her name only as Larisa. 'There will just be another channel.'
Putin Consolidates Power But Wields It Unsteadily
By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service, Monday, March 26, 2001
"The answer is simple: He's in charge," said Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the reformist Yabloko
party. "The people in the Duma are very eager at the moment to vote the way of Putin."
Yavlinsky, possibly the country's most prominent liberal, is an interesting case in point. He
forcefully accuses Putin of re-creating a police state, yet he keeps ties with the administration in
hopes of influencing decisions. "We have a dialogue with the president and at the same time we
are in opposition to creating a cooperative police state," Yavlinsky said.
20,000 Turn Out in Support of NTV
Combined Reports
The Moscow Times, Monday, April 2, 2001, p.3
Liberals see the dispute and legal action against NTV, as a test of Putin's commitment to press
freedom and fair reporting of issues like Russia's war against separatist Chechnya.
"We know why they want to destroy NTV. So that we will never know about millions of dollars
being taken out of the country or about how a war is being conducted with slogans of fighting
terrorism and corruption," Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the Yabloko party, told the gathering.
Big Rally Defends Russia's Independent NTV Channel
By Ron Popeski
Reuters, Saturday March 31 8:24 AM ET
"We know why they want to destroy NTV. So that we will never know about millions of dollars
taken out of the country...about how a war is being conducted with slogans of fighting terrorism
and corruption," Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the Yabloko party, told the gathering.
"We know that this is not about fighting terrorists and corruption but about the fight for press
freedom."
Russians Protest for Press Freedom
The Associated Press
Saturday March 31 11:52 AM ET
Thousands of people gathered in a central Moscow
square Saturday to voice support for freedom of the press in Russia,
especially the embattled private NTV television.
Organizers and police said at least 20,000 people turned out for
a combination rock concert and political rally to speak out in favor
of press freedoms and to defend NTV, the only major Russian television
station outside the control of the Kremlin.
Putin Allies Seem to Gain in Battle Over Critical Press Empire
By Michael Wines
The New York Times, January 27, 2001
Mr. Gusinsky and his allies cast the fight as a clear issue of press freedom, saying the Kremlin is
persecuting Media-Most to shut down NTV, the last national voice of dissent with its policies.
Mr. Putin, it is true, has a decidedly non-Western view of press freedom: he has said that the real
threat to the press comes not from the state but from the tycoon owners, who merely advance
their own political cases.
Putin Critic Puts His Media Empire Under Thumb of the
Kremlin
By Sabrina Tavernise
The New York Times, November 14, 2000
"This is a very shaky situation for NTV," said Liliya
Shevtsova, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace. "It is the crown jewel and we have no guarantee that the
current management will hold on to their jobs."
Sergei
Ivanenko: ordinary citizens may follow Vladimir Gusinsky-s
way
Source: Gazeta.ru with a reference
to the rbc.ru website,
June 14, 2000
The arrest of the head of the Media-Most
holding company, Vladimir Gusinsky, is obviously politically
motivated.
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