Not something journalists are supposed to admit to, but I completely missed this story. Gazprom, Russian gas giant, buys Izvestya, small circulation liberal newspaper.
Now why would a company that commands nearly a quarter of the world's natural gas, is 50 per cent owned by the state and has, throughout its history, had an intimate relationship with the Kremlin, be interested in diversifying into the newspaper business?
It isn't even as if Izvestya had a wide readership, or a particularly influential one. But it does have pedigree, having evolved from a Soviet publication that embraced democracy. It was quickly superseded by other more pugnacious liberal and democratic media, all of which have in turn been coopted or shut down by the state.
When I was last in Russia, a couple of years ago, Izvestya was only being read by a tiny caste of Russian intellectuals. It was a sort of house journal for sandal-wearing, hand-wringing democrats. It had limited influence and posed no threat to anyone.
The only reason why Gazprom might want to absorb Izvestya into the machinery of state-friendly media would be because the brand, if not the content of the paper, represented a little bit of the dissident conscience of the glasnost' and perestroika days. Pouring cold water on the faintly glowing embers of Russia's free press is yet another piece of neo-Sovietism from Putin's Russia.
Now someone remind me why Russia should be president of the G8 from July?
(Or, if you're not sure, Jeffrey Garten's view in the FT is worth a read.)
