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Vedomosti

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For the eponymous newspapers of Imperial Russia, see Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti and Moskovskie Vedomosti.
Vedomosti
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Oleg Leonov
Founder(s)Derk Sauer
Editor-in-chiefIrina Kazmina[1]
Founded1999; 25 years ago (1999)
LanguageRussian
HeadquartersMoscow
CountryRussia
Circulation64,680[2]
ISSN1814-3881 (print)
1727-7345 (web)
Websitewww.vedomosti.ru

Vedomosti (Russian: Ведомости, IPA: [ˈvʲedəməsʲtʲɪ], lit. 'The Record') is a Russian-language business daily newspaper published in Moscow.[3]

History

[edit]

Vedomosti was founded in 1999[4] as a joint venture between Dow Jones, who publishes The Wall Street Journal; Pearson, who previously published the Financial Times; and Independent Media, who publishes The Moscow Times.[5][6] Independent Media was acquired by Finnish media company Sanoma in 2005.[7]

Leonid Bereshidsky was the first chief editor, till he entered INSEAD business school in 2002 and was replaced by Tatiana Lysova.[8] From 2007 till 2010, Yelizaveta Osetinskaya served as chief editor. In 2010, she became chief editor of the online version of the newspaper. She was replaced by former chief editor Tatiana Lysova.[9]

Sanoma sold its stake in the paper to Demyan Kudryavtsev [ru], former chief executive of Kommersant, in April 2015.[10] Ahead of a new Russian media ownership law prohibiting foreign enterprises from owning more than 20% of Russian media companies, Dow Jones and Pearson also divested their stakes in 2015 to Kudryavtsev,[11][12] who held the right of first refusal.[13] According to the newspaper, Vedmosti had about twenty-thousand paid subscribers in November 2016.[14] Ilya Bulavinov, former head of the directorate for internet broadcasting of the state First Channel, has been serving as chief editor since 2017.[15][16]

In March 2020, Kudryavtsev and his partners, Boris Berezovsky associate Vladimir Voronov and former News Corp executive Martin Pompadour, announced their intention to sell Vedomosti to two buyers: publisher of Nasha Versiya Konstantin Zyatkov and managing director of Arbat Capital Alexei Golubovich.[17] Former editor-in-chief Tatiana Lysova criticized the sale, saying that the buyers were "alien to Vedomosti's rules and ideals."[17]

The following month, the sale was put on hold amid accusations of censorship under editor-in-chief Andrey Shmarov.[18] Shmarov reportedly deleted articles critical of Rosneft's head, Igor Sechin, and banned articles critical of Putin's proposed constitutional changes.[19] According to an investigation by Meduza, Arkan Investment, Vedomostis parent company, had taken out a loan of €28 million from Rosneft's subsidiary the Russian Regional Development Bank (RRDB) to pay off a previous €25 million loan from the Russian state-owned bank Gazprombank which was used to buy Vedomosti in 2015. The investigation also alleged that Rosneft spokesperson Mikhail Leontyev was involved in both the selection of Shmarov as editor-in-chief and in negotiating the sale of the paper.[13] Kudryavtsev confirmed the loan, but claims the loan was not used to buy Vedomosti.[20]

On 29 May 2020, Vedomosti was sold to businessman Ivan Yeremin via his holding company Sapport.[20][21]

On 15 June 2020, five senior editors resigned from Vedomosti in protest to Shmarov's confirmation to editor-in-chief by the paper's board of directors.[22] Some of them established an independent VTimes [ru] news website.[23] Russia designated VTimes as a "foreign agent" in May 2021, saying it was registered in the Netherlands;[24] on 3 June 2021, VTimes announced closure of its operations on 12 June, citing operational difficulties connected with the status.[25]

In 2022, the formal ownership of Vedomosti was transferred to Oleg Leonov, a PR advisor and former head of the FTI Consulting office in Moscow.[26][27]

Criticism

[edit]

In July 2016 Vedomosti published an article about Igor Sechin, the head of Rosneft. According to the article Sechin was building a house in Barvikha on a plot worth $60 million. In November of the same year, Sechin won the case against Vedomosti and the court ordered the newspaper to remove the material from the newspaper's website and destroy all available circulation of this article.[28][29][30]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Редакция". Vedomosti (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-05-05.
  2. ^ "Vedomosti". Eurotopics. Federal Agency for Civic Education. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  3. ^ Koikkalainen, Katja (December 2007). "The Local and the International in Russian Business Journalism: Structures and Practices". Europe-Asia Studies. 59 (8): 1315–1329. JSTOR 20451455.
  4. ^ Hobson, Peter (2015-11-20). "Pearson and Dow Jones Sell Russia's Vedomosti Newspaper". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  5. ^ Whalen, Jeanne (8 September 1999). "Dow Jones, Pearson, Dutch Publisher Jointly Launch Newspaper in Russia". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  6. ^ Picard, Robert G. (1989). Media Firms: Structures, Operations, and Performance. Newbury Park: SAGE Publishing. p. 61. ISBN 9780803935013.
  7. ^ "SanomaWSOY acquires the leading Russian magazine publisher Independent Media". Sanoma. 19 January 2005.
  8. ^ "У "Ведомостей" – новый редактор". Ведомости (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  9. ^ "Биография Елизаветы Осетинской". 29 November 2013.
  10. ^ "Sanoma agrees sale of stake in Vedomosti and other leading titles in Russia". Sanoma. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  11. ^ Sweney, Mark (20 November 2015). "Pearson and Dow Jones sell stakes in Russian newspaper Vedomosti". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  12. ^ Strokolsky, Konstantin (16 October 2014). "Bloomberg: друзья Путина готовятся купить газету 'Ведомости'". Russian Planet (in Russian). Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  13. ^ a b Lysova, Tatiana; Golunov, Ivan; Yakoreva, Anastasia (12 May 2020). "'Conspiring with these people': How Rosneft trapped one of Russia's top business newspapers and left the nominal owner with $15.1 million in profits. A joint investigation". Meduza.
  14. ^ ""Ведомости" ужесточат правила доступа к своему контенту". Информационное агентство RNS (in Russian). 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  15. ^ Hartog, Eva (2017-03-31). "The Story of Vedomosti — A Russian Newspaper's Struggle for Independence". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  16. ^ "Главным редактором "Ведомостей" станет Илья Булавинов Издание возглавит бывший топ-менеджер "Коммерсанта", РИА Новости и Первого канала". 22 March 2017.
  17. ^ a b "Vedomosti Owner Kudryavtsev Agrees on Sale Deal". The Moscow Times. 18 March 2020.
  18. ^ "Vedomosti Sale Delayed Amid Pro-Kremlin Censorship Scandal". The Moscow Times. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  19. ^ "Vedomosti Sale Put on Hold After Censorship Backlash". Russia Business Today. 1 May 2020.
  20. ^ a b "Sale of top Russian business newspaper 'Vedomosti' complete". Meduza. 29 May 2020.
  21. ^ "Новым владельцем 'Ведомостей' стал Иван Еремин" (in Russian). TASS. 29 May 2020.
  22. ^ Farber, Gabrielle Tétrault; Zverev, Anton (15 June 2020). "Five senior editors at Russian business newspaper resign, accuse boss of pro-Kremlin censorship". The Globe and Mail. Reuters.
  23. ^ "Ex-Vedomosti Journalists Launch New Outlet Following Pro-Kremlin Censorship Scandal". The Moscow Times. 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  24. ^ France 24 with AP, Reuters and AFP (2021-05-14). "Russia launches crackdown on media over 'foreign agent' designation". France 24. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ "Почему мы закрываем VTimes". VTimes (in Russian). 2021-06-03. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
  26. ^ У газеты «Ведомости» сменился собственник [Vedomosti has a new owner] - rbc.ru, 24 August 2022
  27. ^ FTI Consulting in Russia: General Director
  28. ^ "Court orders newspaper to destroy remaining editions with article on Rosneft chief". November 21, 2016.
  29. ^ ""Ведомости": Сечин строит дом в Барвихе на участке за $60 миллионов". Радио Свобода (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  30. ^ "Сечин выиграл суд у "Ведомостей", и решение вступило в силу". Ведомости (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-12-31.
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