Top Russian business daily sold to Kremlin-connected billionaire

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

MOSCOW (AFP) — Kommersant, one of Russia's leading business dailies and a rare outlet for criticism of the government, has reportedly been sold to Kremlin-connected metals magnate Alisher Usmanov. "It's possible that not every detail of the deal has been completed, but it can be talked about as an established fact," said Kommersant general director Demyan Kudryavtsev, the news agency Interfax reported.

Usmanov, who heads a subsidiary of state gas monopoly Gazprom and is considered loyal to the Kremlin, was quoted by Interfax as saying he had paid 299 million dollars (233 million euros) for the paper's publishing house, which prints the Kommersant daily and several related magazines. The metals magnate bought Kommersant from Georgian entrepreneur Badri Patarkatsishvili, who...