General Director of Kommersant Holding CJSC Andrey Galiev and Chief Editor of the Kommersant Power magazine Maxim Kovalsky.
The Kommersant publishing house was created on the basis of the private weekly Kommersant, founded in June 1988. The history of the Kommersant Publishing House begins from the moment when, on June 15, 1988, the correspondent of the Ogonyok magazine, Vladimir Yakovlev, registered the Fact information cooperative, which, in collaboration with the Union of Cooperators, began publishing the first private business publication in the country - the Kommersant newspaper.
In December 1989, the zero (pilot) issue of the then weekly newspaper was published. And from January 8, 1990, the newspaper began to be published regularly. The very first issues brought success to the publication. Already in 1992, the publishing house began publishing the daily newspaper Kommersant-Daily. In 1993, the weekly Kommersant was transformed into the color magazine Kommersant. In the same year, a full-color monthly magazine for family reading, Domovoy, was published; a year later, the monthly Autopilot and the weekly Kommersant DENGI appeared.
Now the publishing house "Kommersant" is the daily newspaper "Kommersant", the daily newspaper "Kommersant in the Regions", the analytical weekly "Kommersant AUTHORITY", the economic weekly "Kommersant DENGI", the automobile magazine "Autopilot", the monthly shopping magazine "Kommersant CATALOG", the monthly business magazine "Secret of the Firm", the cult European magazine "CITIZEN K", the weekly magazine about what to do, "Kommersant WEEKEND".
In publications and technical services Publishing house "Kommersant" employs over 800 people. The audience of printed products of the Kommersant Publishing House exceeds 1 million people.
In 1999, 100% of the shares of Kommersant Publishing House were acquired by Boris Berezovsky and Badri Patarkatsishvili, who have a joint business, which is mainly located outside of Russia. Over the past five years, they have sold their stakes in Rusal, ORT and Sibneft, retaining only all the shares of the Kommersant publishing house.
On February 17, 2006, it became known that one of the co-owners of the newspaper, Boris Berezovsky, was selling his share of ownership in, and along with him his other assets, to the second co-owner, Badri Patarkatsishvili, who heads the board of directors of the Kommersant Publishing House. The board of directors of Kommersant Publishing House consists of eight people. In addition to Badri Patarkatsishvili, this is businessman and longtime associate of Boris Berezovsky Yuli Dubov, former general director of Kommersant Vladimir Lensky, Demyan Kudryavtsev, who replaced him in this post on January 4, 2006, Chief Editor newspaper "Kommersant-Ukraine" Andrey Vasilyev and once CEO ID, deputy editor-in-chief of the Kommersant newspaper Azer Mursaliev, as well as Natalya Nosova and Natalya Krokhina.
In August 2006, the name of the new owner of the Kommersant publishing house became known; it became Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov.
According to a report published in the SPARK database, in 2010, Kommersant Publishing House received a net profit of 116 million rubles. In 2009, the publishing house had net loss 52 million rubles. As of the end of 2010, liabilities for short-term loans and credits amounted to 256.4 million rubles, and the total amount of accounts payable reached 532 million rubles (at the end of 2009 it was 304 million rubles).
Below are the financial results of the activities of CJSC Kommersant Publishing House:
- 2005: revenue 1,476,751 thousand rubles, net profit 390,008 thousand rubles.
- 2006: revenue 1,579,594 thousand rubles, net profit 134,926 thousand rubles.
- 2007: revenue 2,272,205 thousand rubles, net profit 244,387 thousand rubles.
- 2008: revenue 2,507,129 thousand rubles, net profit 247,237 thousand rubles.
- 2009: revenue 1,781,494 thousand rubles, loss -57,268 thousand rubles.
- 2010: revenue 2,032,499 thousand rubles, net profit 116,185 thousand rubles.
Ashot Gabrelyanov: As far as I know, the operating profit of the holding (Kommersant) for 2010 did not exceed $100,000, and loan debts amount to about 500 million rubles.
- 2011: revenue 2,487,694 thousand rubles, net profit 104,259 thousand rubles.
- 2012: revenue 2,700,111 thousand rubles, net profit 18,544 thousand rubles.
- 2013: revenue 2,758,035 thousand rubles, net profit 80,418 thousand rubles.
- 2014: revenue 2,800,000 thousand rubles, net profit 51,700 thousand rubles. accounts payable 548,817 thousand rubles.
Internet audience
According to TNS, the average audience of the Kommersant.ru website in May 2014 was 273 thousand people per day.
Story
2018: Short-term DDoS attack
On the evening of May 30, 2018, the website of the Kommersant newspaper was subjected to an intense DDoS attack, which made the resource unavailable for more than an hour. As the publication's editor-in-chief Sergei Yakovlev told news agency RNS, the attack began shortly before eight in the evening and lasted about 70 minutes. By 21:10 Moscow time, the functionality of the site was restored, but closer to ten in the evening the media again noted problems with access. As of May 31, the site is operating normally.
In a conversation with a TAdviser correspondent, representatives of the newspaper refused to comment on the incident, citing internal politics.
The Kommersant website has been subject to intense DDoS attacks in the past: in particular, in 2008, 2011 and 2012, attackers managed to disable it. In none of these cases were the attack organizers found.
| This year’s record is a DDoS attack with an intensity of 1.7 Tbit/s,” noted Alexander Lyamin, founder and CEO of Qrator Labs, a company specializing in protection against DDoS attacks. - In principle, carrying out such an attack is not a problem, and the intensity of the attack is no longer the key to effectiveness: there is whole line other methods of DDoS attacks that make it possible to disable a network resource without “flooding” the main communication channel with junk traffic. Apparently, the Kommersant website was not sufficiently prepared for the attack aimed at it. |
The fact that the attack stopped quite quickly may indicate its “demonstration” nature, says Georgy Lagoda, CEO of SEC Consult Services.
The expert also noted that the successful implementation of this attack constitutes a violation of a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (272, 273). If the initiator of the attack was the service, then the offense can be classified as committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, which aggravates the possible legal consequences.
The editors of the most affected publication do not have any versions as to who is behind the attack.
2017: Closing of paper versions of the magazines “Money” and “Vlast”
In January 2017, it was announced that the Kommersant Publishing House would cease publishing printed versions of the magazines Dengi and Vlast. The format of weekly magazines is dying out, advertising sales in them are not growing, and printing is becoming more and more expensive, said the general director of the publishing house Vladimir Zhelonkin. The publication of these magazines in paper form, in fact, eats up everything they manage to earn. And Kommersant, according to Zhelonkin, wants to increase its EBITDA and is no longer ready to spend money on paper versions of these projects.
At the same time, Dengi and Vlast will continue to be published online, Zhelonkin said, and most of the editorial staff will continue to work. At this time, in addition to the newspaper of the same name, Kommersant has several more publications published in paper form - the magazines Ogonyok, Weekend, and Autopilot. Their publishing house will continue to publish, since in terms of revenue they feel much better than the closing projects.
2016: Revenue growth to 3.2 billion rubles due to sales on the Internet
In 2016, Kommersant Publishing House received 3.2 billion rubles. revenue compared to 2.8 billion rubles in 2015, said the general director of the publishing house Vladimir Zhelonkin. EBITDA in 2016 amounted to about 400 million rubles. In 2017, revenue will grow by another 0.3 billion rubles, he expects. The main driver of growth is the Internet, both advertising sales and subscriptions to services like Kartoteka.ru, which brought in 0.5 billion rubles in 2016. The entire Internet segment brought Kommersant Publishing House about 1 billion rubles in 2016, or a third of all revenue, Zhelonkin said.
2015: Sale of the magazine “Secret of the Firm” to the media holding Rambler & Co
In 2015, Kommersant Publishing House sold the magazine “Secret of the Firm” to the media holding Rambler & Co. The holding turned “The Secret of the Company” into an online publication.
2012: Closing of Kommersant-TV
On June 26, 2012, it became known that Kommersant-TV, the television channel of the Kommersant publishing house, would soon stop broadcasting. This was reported by the Slon portal with reference to several anonymous sources, as well as the former general director of Kommersant Demyan Kudryavtsev. Kudryavtsev refused to announce the reasons for closing TV, noting only that this was not his decision.
Employees of Kommersant-TV confirmed information about the closure of television on their Twitter. Thus, Marina Ivanova noted that all employees would be fired, except those who also worked at the Kommersant-FM radio station.
Later, information about the closure of the project appeared on the official website of Kommersant: it was confirmed by the general director of the publishing house Dmitry Sergeev. Kommersant-FM’s Twitter says that the TV is closing due to “commercial inefficiency.”
A series of changes within Kommersant began in the summer of 2012 with the fact that Demyan Kudryavtsev announced his departure from all projects related to Kommersant Publishing House (he remained on the company’s board of directors).
Immediately after Kudryavtsev’s resignation, several personnel changes were announced at Kommersant. Thus, the former general director of UTV-Media Dmitry Sergeev took the post of general director of Kommersant-Holding, and the post of chairman of the board of directors should be taken by Ivan Tavrin from MegaFon. All these companies, like Kommersant, belong to billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
Personnel changes at Kommersant were not limited to. In mid-June it became known that one of the projects of the publishing house, Citizen K magazine, would be closed.
Kommersant television was launched in October 2011. It initially differed from all other TV projects in that there were no presenters on Kommersant-TV: the news was presented in the form of photographs, illustrations or text, and was voiced by a voiceover. At the beginning of 2012, a special project by Leonid Parfenov dedicated to the presidential elections in Russia was released on television.
Interview with Pavel Filenkov, General Director of Kommersant Publishing House, about trends in the media industry (July 2012)
2011: Editorial conflict with Usmanov. Kudryavtsev's resignation
The editor-in-chief of the Kommersant Vlast magazine, Maxim Kovalsky, has been fired. According to some reports, this decision is explained by materials and illustrations in last issue magazine dedicated to the results of the State Duma elections. The owner of the publishing house called them a violation of journalistic ethics, bordering on petty hooliganism.
Also, the general director of Kommersant-Holding CJSC Andrei Galiev was dismissed. The general director of the Kommersant publishing house, Demyan Kudryavtsev, also wrote a letter of resignation. A decision on his candidacy will be made in the next two weeks.
Demyan Kudryavtsev’s personal blog reports that decisions on resignations were made by the Board of Directors of the Publishing House. They are explained by “violation of internal procedures and rules of the Kommersant Publishing House”, as well as “violation of the standards of professional journalism and legislation Russian Federation" .
“The management of the Publishing House regrets this and apologizes to readers and partners,” the message says.
- On December 14, 2011, Mikhail Prokhorov sent an official offer to purchase the Kommersant holding to Alisher Usmanov. However, at a press conference on December 15, Prokhorov said that although the Kommersant newspaper would be interesting for him from an investment point of view, he personally is no longer involved in this issue. “Now I am not a businessman, but a politician,” Interfax quotes Prokhorov as saying.
Alisher Usmanov initially stated that he perceived Prokhorov’s proposal to purchase Komersant only as a joke, and later added that “he had no plans to sell the media asset and does not foresee it.” At the same time, he stated that he was ready to consider the possibility joint activities with Prokhorov's media companies.
- On December 14, 2011, it became known that the owner of Kommersant Publishing House Alisher Usmanov and the shareholders of the publishing house decided to make an offer to billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov to purchase the RBC media holding. According to the agency, Kommersant's proposal could be put forward as early as December 15.
Later, the decision to dismiss Kovalsky was canceled; he left the editorial office by agreement of the parties.
2009: Accession of the Ogonyok magazine
May - The oldest socio-political weekly magazine Ogonyok becomes a publication of the Kommersant Publishing House.
2007: Accession of the magazine "Secret of the Firm"
January - The business magazine “Secret of the Firm” joins the portfolio of publications of the Kommersant Publishing House.
2006: Usmanov bought Kommersant
- In 2006, businessman Alisher Usmanov became the owner of Kommersant Publishing House.
- September - The monthly shopping guide “Kommersant CATALOG” begins publication - a monthly glossy publication on how to buy correctly.
The government's Analytical Center (AC) was unable to assess the socio-economic effect of the objects of the Comprehensive Plan for the Modernization and Expansion of Trunk Infrastructure using the methodology proposed by the Ministry of Economy, RBC reports. The department indicated
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Kommersant 1 hour ago 0Main news for the morning of February 19
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Kommersant 2 hours ago 2In the United States, 16 states challenged Trump's decision to introduce a state of emergency in court.
In the United States, 16 states, including California, filed a lawsuit against the administration of President Donald Trump. The reason was his declaration of a state of emergency, which would allow him to obtain additional funds for the construction of a wall between the United States and Mexico without the approval of Congress.
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Channel One will show a television version of the Oscar ceremony on February 25 at midnight, the channel’s press service reported. “Channel One presents a television version of the American Oscars film awards ceremony, which this year
Kommersant 3 hours ago 0The EU included Russia in the list of countries that systematically violate human rights
The EU Council has published a document concerning human rights violations in the world. In it, he commits to combating abuses in this area wherever they occur. The EU expressed concern about persistent human rights violations in Cameroon, Myanmar,
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Scientist Wallace Smith Broecker died on Monday in a New York hospital, The Washington Post reports. He was 87 years old. The scientist had been ill in recent months. Mr. Broecker was a renowned climatologist whose main scientific interest was determining the role of the ocean
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The Sakhalin Regional Duma, during an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, unanimously voted for the preparation and publication of a statement based on the results of a VTsIOM survey on affiliation Kuril Islands conducted among the inhabitants of the islands. The application consists of
Kommersant 4 hours ago 2The Daily Beast reported fraud at a briefing on the 9M729 missile
The online publication The Daily Beast, citing US intelligence data, reported that at the January briefing of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where some tactical and technical characteristics of the 9M729 ground-based cruise missile were revealed, it was about a different type of missile.
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300 tons of humanitarian aid from Russia will arrive in Venezuela on February 20, the country's current President Nicolas Maduro said at a meeting with scientists. The speech was broadcast on Twitter. “Every day we have humanitarian support. 300 ton arrives on Wednesday
Kommersant 5 hours ago 0The senator estimated the debts of unemployed convicts at 140 billion rubles
The debt of unemployed convicts on outstanding obligations is estimated at 140 billion rubles, said Senator Sergei Fabrichny at a meeting of regional deputies with members of the temporary commission of the Federation Council. “In the Stavropol Territory, 33% of convicts work
Kommersant 5 hours ago 1The Iranian parliament allowed the government to take a $5 billion loan from Russia
Iranian parliamentarians discuss budget for next year. They agreed that the government could take a $5 billion loan from Russia for fixed assets, Mehr agency reports. The funds will be used for infrastructure and production needs. According to the law
Kommersant 6 hours ago 1EU ministers plan to discuss the EC's mandate for dialogue with the US on tariffs on industrial goods
The issue of obtaining a mandate to begin negotiations with the United States on tariffs on industrial goods, which the European Commission asked the EU Council in January, will be discussed at an informal meeting of the Council of Ministers for Trade of the European Union in Bucharest at the end of the week.
Kommersant 6 hours ago 0The United States is considering all options to resolve the conflict in Venezuela
US President Donald Trump gave a speech in Florida regarding the political crisis in Venezuela. He called on the country's military not to block the delivery of humanitarian aid. Mr. Trump said the United States is counting on a peaceful transfer of power to Venice
Kommersant 7 hours ago 5Parking on all streets in Moscow will be free on February 23
On Defender of the Fatherland Day, parking on all streets in Moscow will be free. As Interfax reports with reference to the Administrator of the Moscow Parking Space (AMPS), parking lots with barriers will operate as usual. “On February 23rd I pay
Kommersant 8 hours ago 2Ramzan Kadyrov explained the transfer of powers due to a cold
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, spoke about the reason for the temporary transfer of powers to the chairman of the government of the republic, Muslim Khuchiev. An order on the website of the administration of the head and government of Chechnya stated that the responsibilities were assigned to Mr. X
Kommersant 8 hours ago 1Main announcements on February 19
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will hold a large meeting with the participation of regional heads on issues of municipal solid waste management. Previously, the government proposed tax incentives for regional MSW operators. From January 1, Russian registry
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The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) addressed a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It states, in particular, that “the EAJC notes with alarm the widespread use of hate speech in the public political and information space.”
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In December 2018, Russia ranked second in the world in terms of oil production. According to the Joint Petroleum Statistics Initiative (JODI), average production in the last month of last year was 10.738 million barrels per day.
Kommersant 9 hours ago 1The Russian Foreign Ministry is ready to facilitate the search for mutual understanding between constructive forces in Venezuela
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “the situation in Venezuela is developing along an alarming trajectory” and expressed its readiness to “assist in the search for such mutual understanding between all constructive and patriotic forces” in the country.
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The head of EU diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, said that EU countries are discussing the issue of returning from Syria European citizens who left for the Middle East to fight on the side of ISIS (Islamic State, banned in the Russian Federation), “regardless of the requests of
Kommersant 10 hours ago 0TASS: Acting head of the city Dzerzhinsky was detained on suspicion of official crime
FSB officers detained the acting head of the town of Dzerzhinsky near Moscow, Sergei Gribinyuchenko. As a law enforcement source told TASS, he is suspected of official crime. The agency does not have official
Kommersant 10 hours ago 0The International Federation of Journalists considers the blocking of the RT project censorship
President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Philippe Lerout said that Facebook's decision to block the RT project page "could be considered an act of censorship." He stressed that the IFJ opposes censorship
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A criminal case has been initiated against the head of the investigation organization department of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, Sergei Galenkov, under Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As a law enforcement source told TASS, Mr. Galenkov is suspected of taking
Kommersant 10 hours ago 0Kadyrov appointed acting Head of Chechnya before his visit to the UAE
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, appointed the chairman of the government of the republic, Muslim Khuchiev, as the acting head of the region. An order on the website of the administration of the head and government of Chechnya states that responsibilities were assigned to Messrs.
Kommersant 11 hours ago 1Michael Calvey counts on the help of business ombudsman Boris Titov
The head of the Baring Vostok fund, Michael Calvey, “expects that the investigation will sort everything out and everyone will understand that he is innocent.” He told this to members of the Society who visited him in the pre-trial detention center N1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service (“Matrosskaya Tishina”).
Over its almost eighteen-year history, the Kommersant publishing house changed owners three times. Created in June 1988 by Ogonyok journalist Vladimir Yakovlev, the publishing house in 1999, through a figurehead, came under the control of the famous businessman Boris Berezovsky. In February 2006, Berezovsky sold it to his long-time business partner, businessman and member of the Georgian cabinet of ministers Badri Patarkatsishvili. And at the end of August of the same year, Kommersant found a new owner - it was entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov, head of Gazprominvestholding, which is entirely controlled by the state-owned Gazprom.
The Kommersant publishing house arose during the years of perestroika, but it differed sharply from all perestroika projects related to the presentation of socio-political information in that it fundamentally placed itself above politics. In 1987, the Fakt information and reference service was created, intending to supply its potential readers - members of the cooperative movement that was gaining momentum in those years - with facts: contact information, reference literature, texts of regulations and documents. The service's activities were in demand, and on June 15, 1988, one of the founders of Fakt, correspondent for Ogonyok magazine Vladimir Yakovlev, formalized the transformation of the service into a cooperative - the history of the Kommersant publishing house dates back to this day (although the name was invented later) .
The first Soviet millionaire Artem Tarasov helped Yakovlev turn Fakt's news reports into a full-fledged newspaper (initially weekly). The pilot episode of Kommersant was released in December 1989. In January 1990, the newspaper went into circulation and immediately became popular among representatives of the young Russian middle class. Kommersant achieved success not in last resort because he did not try to take a position on one side or another of the ideological barricades erected in the early 90s by opponents and supporters of the dying Soviet power. The newspaper addressed business people and saw its main task as promptly supplying them with fresh and reliable information. Within a year, Kommersant's circulation reached half a million, and in September 1992, Yakovlev managed to turn the weekly into a business newspaper published six times a week.
Following this, the publishing house began to launch one project after another. The analytical weekly Weekly (in 1997 renamed the Kommersant Vlast magazine), the illustrated monthly for family reading Domovoy, the economic weekly Kommersant Money and others were born, and the basis of the publishing house’s activities, its face and brand remained the daily newspaper, asking Russian market The media is a new standard of journalism - business, informational, operational, without assessments, opinions, ideological cliches and lyrical digressions. The newspaper spoke to the reader on an equal basis - offering him only facts, without imposing his own opinion. This was captivating, and throughout the 1990s, circulation continued to grow, the publishing house’s profits continued to increase, and its authority among fellow journalists and ordinary readers continued to strengthen. By 1993, the publishing house had seized leadership in the commercial advertising market in the media. Western publications called the Kommersant newspaper a Russian hybrid of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
However, Vladimir Yakovlev himself, who put so much effort into creating a completely new successful commercial project for Russia, gradually began to retire. Being the owner of a controlling stake in the Kommersant Publishing House, he could afford to shift current work on his like-minded people and assistants - general director Leonid Miloslavsky and editor-in-chief Raf Shakirov. This did not affect the level of publications, and none of the newspaper’s readers knew that in 1998 Yakovlev, who by that time had become seriously interested in Buddhism, left Russia, moving to Los Angeles. At that time, no one except a narrow circle of insiders was interested in the name of the owner of the publishing house and changes within the editorial office.
But in August 1998, there was a default in Russia, and the business of the publishing house began to deteriorate (the first to feel this were the editorial staff, who had been accustomed over the previous years of work to give their all for a truly decent salary). And so in 1999, the year before the next presidential election, rumors spread that Yakovlev might part with his brainchild. This decision was probably the right one - such a sought-after media asset with an unblemished reputation seemed like an extremely tasty morsel for all political players with means, and financial difficulties threatened to deprive the publishing house of its former ideological independence. Most likely, realizing that Kommersant would certainly have some kind of behind-the-scenes patron who would dictate his editorial policy with money, Yakovlev decided to finally leave the game.
Once
As a result, in July 1999, the publishing house passed into the wrong hands for the first time. The hands are very strange - the buyers of 85 percent of the shares of Kommersant turned out to be two young businessmen of Iranian origin - 27-year-old Kia Jurabchan and 31-year-old Reza Irani-Kermani, representing the company American Capital, registered in the offshore zone of the British Virgin Islands. Many Kommersant employees remember how one day Dzhurabchan appeared in the famous building on Vrubel Street with an open palm instead of a pen. front door- walked around the editorial premises, looking at the employees with interest. The employees looked at him with interest. They did not see each other again, because it soon became clear that American Capital was a shell company representing the interests of Boris Berezovsky, to whom the mentioned block of shares went (Berezovsky then bought the remaining 15 percent from the general director of the publishing house Leonid Miloslavsky). Iranian help, as knowledgeable people explained at the time, was needed not by the Russian oligarch, but by Yakovlev himself, who did not want to openly admit that he had sold Kommersant to an entrepreneur and former politician with a dubious reputation. In an interview published by Kommersant itself, its creator explained his action as follows: he supposedly wanted Kommersant shares to disappear “from the market political influence".
However, from now on the publishing house, which diligently expelled politics from the pages of its publications, was doomed to become an instrument of the political game itself. Not only that, the transfer of Kommersant to the control of a well-known oligarch has already politicized the publication. Shortly before this, a scandal broke out in the newspaper, which almost deprived the publishing house of its editor-in-chief. In March 1999, then Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov made a famous U-turn over Atlantic Ocean, not wanting to fly to America, which just at that moment decided to begin bombing the positions of the Serbian army in Yugoslavia with combined international forces. The next morning, the newspaper came out with an editorial signed by Vladislav Borodulin, editor-in-chief of the Kommersant Vlast magazine, who meticulously calculated the potential losses to the Russian economy from Primakov’s demarche. On the same day, the editor-in-chief of the publishing house, Raf Shakirov, who disagreed with this assessment of this event, wrote a letter of apology to Primakov on behalf of the editors. For this, Miloslavsky, as the general director of the publishing house, fired Shakirov, but Vladimir Yakovlev, at that time still the owner of the publishing house, found out about this story and intervened: by his order, Shakirov was reinstated, and Miloslavsky was forced to leave (Borodulin worked for several more months and also left - to head the online publication "Gazeta.Ru").
However, that incident could still be considered a separate internal editorial incident. In August 1999, Andrei Vasiliev, a longtime employee of the Fakt cooperative, who had previously worked both at Kommersant itself and in other places, became the general director and chief editor of the united editorial office of the entire publishing house. Alexander Stukalin was appointed editor-in-chief of the Kommersant newspaper. And the new owner of the publishing house, Boris Berezovsky, speaking to employees (at that time the oligarch was neither disgraced nor a fugitive, and there was no point in hiding behind the Iranians), said that he was not going to interfere in editorial policy. And although, due to changed circumstances, the owner of Kommersant sometimes posted his political statements on its pages, Vasiliev invariably sought their publication “as an advertisement,” that is, he deliberately distanced the publication from the political ambitions of its owner.
The internal editorial mechanism, established by Yakovlev and his comrades and supported by Vasiliev, had such positive inertia that it lasted for almost six subsequent years. The newspaper retained its business-like tone, its commitment to facts rather than opinions, and its desire to stay away from current political struggles. Neither the coming to power of Vladimir Putin, nor the second Chechen campaign, nor the YUKOS affair, nor the second presidential elections brought any special changes to the activities of the editorial office. In May 2004, speaking to employees during a teleconference, Berezovsky (by then already a political emigrant and living in London) stated that Kommersant remained the last major independent media outlet in Russia not controlled by the Kremlin. Berezovsky also added that he is not going to sell the publishing house or change its top managers.
However, exactly a year later, the oligarch’s plans began to change. In June of the following year, 2005, Berezovsky unexpectedly announced the dismissal of Andrei Vasilyev from his positions and his transfer to Kyiv as editor-in-chief of the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper. Stukalin also lost his post as editor-in-chief of the daily. The London owner of the publishing house never really explained his actions. More precisely, he stated that, in his opinion, Kommersant began to lose its position as the leader of business journalism in the Russian media market (the Vedomosti newspaper was named as its main competitor), but few believed it. Firstly, no leadership of Vedomosti over Kommersant was planned. Secondly, it is strange to appoint the culprit of an alleged commercial failure as the head of a new project that needs help and support experienced specialist. Thirdly, Vasiliev and Stukalin were replaced by people under whom the history of Kommersant, which had previously developed quite straight, began to take a not very clear turn.
Vladislav Borodulin returned to the publishing house from Gazeta.Ru as the chief editor of the united editorial office, and Vladimir Lensky, who was once the executive director of the NTV+ television channel, became the general director. Considering that Borodulin for the last six years has not been running a business publication, but a socio-political one, and Lensky had no experience at all in print media, it was difficult to believe that the reshuffle of top management was really aimed at catching up and overtaking Vedomosti in the field of business journalism. Moreover, since the summer of 2005, a truly wide outflow of the oldest and most experienced employees who had produced the newspaper and magazines under Yakovlev and Vasiliev began from the Kommersant Publishing House, which did not fail to affect the quality of published materials. After less than six months of work, Lensky left his post (including due to the fact that he did not find common language with the team), and his place was taken in January 2006 by Demyan Kudryavtsev, a person from Boris Berezovsky’s inner circle. At the same time, two rumors began to be actively discussed in the media community: that all the recent changes in the editorial office were allegedly caused by the owner’s desire to turn the influential newspaper into an anti-Putin leaflet; and also that the same owner intends to get rid of the publishing house by selling it to another owner.
Two
Events that occurred a little over a month later strangely confirmed both rumors. Berezovsky did sell Kommersant, but he did it in such a way that observers started talking about increasing his influence on the publication's policy. The fact is that Badri Patarkatsishvili, an old acquaintance and business partner Berezovsky. Berezovsky, in his own words, sold his entire Russian business to Patarkatsishvili (calling the deal “multi-billion-dollar”) - Kommersant became only part of the overall “package”. Just like six years ago, the reason for changing the ownership of the publishing house was said to be the desire to get it out of the too close attention of the Kremlin - which allegedly looked at Kommersant as an instrument of influence of the disgraced oligarch in Russia. Just like six years ago, the new owner promised to focus on increasing the capitalization of his asset and not interfere in its editorial policy.
However, observers immediately assumed that we're talking about not just about a deal, but about a kind of agreement between old partners, the essence of which is the liberation of Kommersant from the label “Berezovsky’s publication.” Although all the direct participants in this story, including the publishing house, invariably denied these rumors, the politicization of Kommersant began to tend to the level of its capitalization.
Russia, as in 1999, had a little more than a year left before major elections - first parliamentary, then presidential. The Kommersant daily, despite all the vicissitudes of recent years, remains one of the leading players in the print media market. And although it, of course, did not turn into an “anti-Putin leaflet,” the level of criticism of the central government in it has noticeably increased in the last year. Meanwhile, it is no secret that the state has long been seeking to acquire leading media assets - mainly with the hands and money of Gazprom. It is therefore not surprising that as soon as Kommersant ceased to be considered the property of Boris Berezovsky (with whom the state-owned Gazprom would be somehow awkward to enter into open business negotiations, given that the disgraced oligarch in Russia has the status of a criminal suspect), he is here ended up in the attention of potential buyers.
Already in March 2006, Gazeta.Ru, citing its sources, said that the Kremlin intends to buy Kommersant from Patarkatsishvili before the parliamentary elections. The publication also named possible Kremlin agents in this deal - the Gazprom-Media concern and the business structures of Roman Abramovich. Berezovsky and Kudryavtsev resolutely denied the fact that negotiations on this matter, as Gazeta.Ru sources claimed, were already underway and very active. At the same time, Patarkatsishvili himself commented on these rumors as follows: “I belong to that category of people who never say no.” And he added that he would “think deeply” if he was offered good money for Kommersant. By “good money,” the Georgian businessman, as it turned out, meant $300-400 million. Note that in the publication of Gazeta.Ru they talked about the estimated price of 100 million.
Since then, two questions: who the buyer will be and what the transaction amount will be, have continually excited the imagination of the media community. Kommersant's management regularly supported rumors that they were being approached with proposals to sell the asset, but at the same time invariably denied reports that appeared in the press about specific proposals, amounts and terms. Among the contenders were the same Gazprom, Russian railways", Roman Abramovich, and also, according to Demyan Kudryavtsev, "representatives of media companies not controlled, but associated with the state."
So, on June 7, the presenter of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Evgenia Albats, citing her “reliable sources”, said that Kommersant was acquired by the Millhouse company owned by Roman Abramovich for $120 million. This message was immediately picked up by other newspapers, The Moscow Times launched it in the English-language press, but the rumor turned out to be false. The general director of Kommersant, Kudryavtsev, commented on it as follows: Kommersant would be worth 120 million if Evgenia Albats worked there. But since she works for another publication, Kommersant is obviously worth more." Later, both Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili denied information that the publishing house had passed to Abramovich. However, this case gave them an occasion to once again remind the public that the various participants The market constantly turns to them with offers to sell Kommersant.
However, Patarkatsishvili’s counterparties are no less sophisticated than him in conducting media wars and trade negotiations, so in July, the general director of Gazprom-Media, Nikolai Senkevich, unexpectedly announced that his structure was withdrawing from the negotiation process with the owners of Kommersant. Senkevich explained that his shareholders did not agree on the price with Patarkatsishvili. “There were some concerns, but then we abandoned the idea of this purchase, considering the stated price to be too high,” he explained. According to the general director of Gazprom-Media, the publishing house costs $120 million, Gazprom was ready to pay as much as 150 million for it, but even this, Senkevich argued, was not enough for the owner of Kommersant.
Three
And yet the deal took place. This happened on August 30, and the buyer turned out to be entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov, the general director of Gazprominvestholding, controlled by the gas giant, and co-owner of the Metalloinvest company. Usmanov, commenting on this message, said that the amount of the transaction is not 350 or 300 million dollars, but finalization All documents will happen in “one or two days.” True, the discrepancies regarding the price of Kommersant were never resolved. While the new owner himself names the amount at 200 million, the newspaper’s own report about the completed sale still mentions 300 million dollars.
The new owner, as usual, stated that when buying the publishing house, he pursued exclusively business interests and even promised not to change either the editorial policy or the top management of the company. Later, representatives of Gazprom issued a special message in which they emphasized: “We know about Alisher Usmanov’s purchase of the Kommersant publishing house, since he is one of the top managers of the Gazprom group.” However, this purchase was made by him as a personal investment and has nothing to do with his work in Gazprom structures.
Alisher Usmanov
However, Boris Berezovsky had already taken Usmanov’s position with these words: “His task is much more difficult than mine, insofar as I, in order to ensure independence for the media that I own, was forced to leave Russia, and therefore their (authorities - note "Lenta.ru") the pressure on me did not matter to me personally... Unfortunately, I am sure that the Kremlin has much more influence on Alisher Usmanov than on me, so this, naturally, can and will certainly affect the independence of Kommersant." .
There probably won't be any immediate changes at Kommersant - after all, there's still more than a year until the elections. The same Demyan Kudryavtsev expressed confidence that he would retain his workplace. According to him, Alisher Usmanov “wants to see the publishing house profitable and developing and is not going to interfere in editorial policy.” But it should be noted that the first truly large and successful independent media outlet in post-Soviet Russia, which always sought to stand outside of politics, as a result of a series of transactions, each of which was aimed at even greater “depoliticization” of the publishing house, eventually found itself in very dangerous proximity to the very authorities from whom, in theory, he should have stayed away.
