By
The Associated Press
MOSCOW - The state-run gas giant Gazprom ousted the board of directors of Russia's only nationwide independent television network yesterday and installed its own loyalists, seriously damaging NTV's efforts to remain free from government control.
The new chairman of the NTV board is Alfred Kokh, the head of the gas giant's subsidiary Gazprom-Media, and the new general director of the network is Boris Jordan, an American investment banker, said Aelita Yefimova, a spokeswoman for Gazprom-Media. A statement from the board later said Jordan would assume his duties immediately.
NTV's critical coverage of the war in Chechnya, its efforts to expose corruption in high places and its often dramatic footage of the decline of housing, heating and health in Russia have embarrassed the Kremlin as well as local and regional politicians. NTV, which started in 1993, claims the Kremlin would like to end this kind of journalism.
Both Kokh and Jordan - given their new posts at a shareholders' meeting yesterday - were involved in controversial privatization deals of state assets in the 1990s, and NTV's senior journalists have said they would not work for either man.
On the station's evening newscast, a screen behind anchorman Mikhail Osokin showed scores of NTV employees standing silently and the station's logo in the corner of the screen was covered by the word "protest" in red letters.
But just how NTV planned to protest the takeover was unclear. Thousands of people attended a Moscow rally Saturday in support of NTV, and further demonstrations could not be ruled out.
"We understand that the ultimate goal of this meeting is the imposing of full political control over us. We do not doubt that Vladimir Putin, as in the past, knows about what is happening and bears responsibility for the consequences," a statement signed by leading NTV journalists said yesterday.
Yevgeny Kiselyov, the NTV general director ousted by the decision, showed up unexpectedly at the shareholders' meeting and read a court decision banning the gathering, but was told the judge's ruling had been overturned.
Kiselyov, who has emerged as the primary advocate for the network's journalists, was elected by NTV employees as the station's editor-in-chief on Friday - a move apparently intended to keep him in charge of NTV's coverage if he were removed as director general.
Jordan, however, was dismissive of his opponents among NTV's journalists, but said he had no plans to fire anybody.
"NTV will survive, whether they want to work with us or not," Jordan said yesterday. But he then added: "There should be no illusions" about the financial side. "I have a fiduciary responsibility before my shareholders to make the company profitable."
NTV, a cornerstone of media baron Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most empire, has been engaged in a fierce battle for survival with Gazprom, rooted in a dispute over Media-Most's debts. Gusinsky is in Spain fighting extradition to Russia to face fraud charges. Media-Most controls a host of publications, radio shows and TV programs with some of Russia' boldest journalists.
Gazprom holds 46 percent of the shares in NTV and claims to be the controlling shareholder because another 19 percent of the stock, belonging to Media-Most, has been frozen in a court dispute over the media company's debts.
The new board includes five officials from Gazprom, three from various NTV structures and one from the state-controlled RIA news agency. It was not clear whether those from NTV had agreed to be members of the new board.
Jordan, an American of Russian descent, is director of Sputnik Technology Ventures, an investment and development company with holdings in telecommunications, new media and radio. Jordan was once denied a Russian visa after he ended up on the winning side of the disputed 1997 sale of the Svyazinvest telecommunications company.
Russian prosecutors have filed fraud charges against Gusinsky, accusing him of overstating Media-Most's assets to win the loan guarantees from Gazprom. Last week, Gusinsky was freed on bail by a Spanish court, an indication the court would reject Russia's request to extradite him.
