Judith Ingram. "Gorbachev buys stake in Russian newspaper"

     Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who fostered press freedom during his tenure in office, said Wednesday that he and a business partner had invested in an independent newspaper.
     Gorbachev said he and Alexander Lebedev, a legislator and anti-corruption crusader, had bought 49 percent of the shares in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, but he added that the paper would not be used to further political or corporate interests.
     "We need to provide a pluralism of opinions and the reliability of its publications, and it must be reflective of public opinion in Russia," Gorbachev told an international audience of media executives. "We, as shareholders, will cooperate with the editorial collective and will not adapt it to our corporate needs."
     "We should — this is one of our goals — promote the newspaper's qualitative development in the interests of democratic values."
     Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov said that the involvement of Gorbachev and Lebedev would allow the outspoken and often combative semiweekly newspaper to maintain editorial independence.
     Novaya Gazeta has specialized in investigative reporting, especially in the area of government corruption, and has been highly critical of the Kremlin's policies in Chechnya and other restive southern regions. It has suffered adverse rulings in several libel suits in recent years.
     "I am sure that with his authority, Mr. Gorbachev wants to protect us from all possible forms of pressure, and ... that he shares the values of the editorial collective," Muratov said. "We want this newspaper to serve not the state, but society."
    "Mr. Gorbachev has bought himself an enormous headache," Muratov said.
     The remaining 51 percent of shares belonged to the newspaper's staff, he said, and the amount paid for the rest was a "commercial secret." The paper has a circulation of 171,500 in Moscow and 513,000 in Russia's regions, Muratov said.
    Gorbachev — whose pioneering programs of "glasnost" or openness, and "perestroika," or restructuring, caused the first cracks in the Soviet empire — has criticized the growing Kremlin control over Russian media, even as he has praised President Vladimir Putin for restoring stability to Russia and reviving its post-Soviet prestige in the world. All three nationwide TV channels are state-controlled, and a number of major newspapers have recently been acquired by Kremlin-friendly interests.
     The respected Izvestia daily was bought last year by the media arm of the state-controlled Gazprom natural gas monopoly, and the Kommersant business daily — owned until recently by exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, an enemy of the Kremlin — is rumored to be close to being snapped up by tycoon Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea football club and a Kremlin loyalist.
     Oleg Panfilov, the head of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said Gorbachev had long supported Novaya Gazeta, a liberal paper, and that his involvement could help boost the publication, already buoyed by popular regional editions.
     "I think the more the Kremlin grabs papers like Izvestia and Kommersant, Novaya Gazeta has better chances to be recognized as an alternative for news, opinion and commentary," Panfilov said.

Associated Press, 07.06.2006