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Gorbachev Buys Stake in Russian Paper

As more newspapers in the Russian Federation come under the control of the Kremlin in one way or another, the former Premier of the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mikhail Gorbachev, has announced that he is buying a stake in a newspaper which still manages to often take a critical line towards Russian president Vladimir Putin. Gorbachev didn?t buy his shares of ?Novaya Gazeta? alone: Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire and member of President Putin?s ?United Russia?, helped out the man who introduced ?glasnost? and ?perestroika? in the late 1980s to buy a 49% holding of the newspaper.

Lebedev is ranked by Forbes magazine as Russia?s 21st-richest man, and while he might be a member of the ruling establishment in Moscow he often takes positions contrary to what the president and many of his fellow parliamentarians in the Russian Duma hold. The shares of the Novaya Gazeta paper obtained by Mr. Lebedev and Mr. Gorbachev were sold to them for just $2 million by outside shareholders, with the remaining 51% stake being retained by the board of editors of the newspaper itself. Announcement after announcement has indicated that the former USSR leader, who generally supports the efforts of President Putin aside from the increase in state control of the media under the former KGB agent?s tenure, wants the newspaper to continue its editorial line without interference.

In addition to the $2 million the men paid for their shares, both Gorbachev and Lebedev have pledged an additional $2 million which will go to the newspaper itself in order to help it grow as Russia?s loudest dissenting voice in an era of increased evidence that the Russian Federation is headed down an authoritarian path similar, albeit much different, than the one from which it abandoned nearly 15 years ago. And Novaya Gazeta needs the money - outside of the capital of Moscow, its circulation is 170,000 copies - quite weak.