JRL NEWSWATCH: “Pro-Kremlin entrepreneur buys leading Russian business newspaper; Media executive Ivan Eremin to acquire Vedomosti after censorship row sinks alternative deal” – Financial Times/ Max Seddon
“A little-known Russian media executive with close commercial ties to the state has bought leading business newspaper Vedomosti …. [Its staff] say … Ivan Eremin … rescu[ing] the sale is unlikely to ease their stand-off with … [a] new acting editor … whom they claim banned writing on topics … the Kremlin considers taboo. … [I]ts reporters [say the clash] shows the Kremlin wants to increase … control over what little remains of … nominally independent media. In recent years … other outlets have been sold to Kremlin-friendly owners … install[ing] pliant editors, prompting staff to quit …. A consortium led by publisher Demyan Kudryavtsev took over Vedomosti – co-founded and formerly co-owned by the FT and the Wall Street Journal – in 2015 after Russia limited foreign ownership of media to 20 per cent. …”