The newspaper “Izvestia” has changed owner again but that is unlikely to cause any change of editorial policy. The interrogated by Novaya Gazeta players of the media market call attention to the fact that the newspaper, that was controlled by Gazprom-Media through Gazprombank, has not come actually to another owner. The new buyer, insurance Company SOGAZ belongs to structures of Yuri Kovalchuk again, who is an old ally of Vladimir Putin’s. That means, with all the apparent change of situation the newspaper is formally re-located from one pocket to the other.    

Last changes of the control stock happened in 2005 when Vladimir Potanin’s company Prof-Media sold its share to OAO Gazprom-Media. Now the Gazprom daughter - the company where shareholders are SOGAZ and UK Leader (controlled by Kovalchuk’s structures) - has passed its packet of shares (50.19%) to SOGAZ. “Starting from 21 May OAO Gazprom-Media does not control the OAO “Editorial Board of Izvestia” ” such is the official statement by the media holding. 

The owner and editor of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Konstantin Remchukov, believes that “even when such purchases are made with political motifs, it is necessary to put in order the business component”. According to him, non-profile assets are a weak point of Gazprom, including those in the media market, and that looks unattractive from the point of view of capitalization, transparency for investors and possible risks. This current transaction looks like “formal getting rid of non-profile asset by an international company with high rating”. “Looks like the useless asset is sold, and the value for investors has increased from the corporate point of view” concludes Mr. Remchukov. “But the fundamental goal of control – to keep loyalty to the authority – has been reached anyway”.    

Today’s editor-in-chief of Izvestia Vladimir Mamontov cannot guess why the new owner did not buy the control stock at once from Prof-Media. Mr. Mamontov calls this fresh deal to be “absolutely technical”. He affirms that when Gazprom-Media bought Izvestia there was an option inside that deal: Sogaz that also participated in the transaction could buy this part of shares from Gazprom-Media if it wished that. According to Vladimir Mamontov, such an opportunity for Sogaz comes out of effect in the middle of this summer. To his mind, nothing is going to change after the newspaper came to new owner.    

The price of the bargain was not published. Gazprom-bank did not answer the questions by Novaya Gazeta. Yuri Kovalchuk refused either to give an interview. However, it was confirmed by the general director of the newspaper Pyotr Godlevsky that “Izvestia” has been bearing losses being financed by Gazprom-Media. He is not authorized to speak about the amounts of investments. However, this fact and that fact that the newspaper possesses immovable property in the center of Moscow makes some media market players think that Sogaz did not make real payment for getting control over the newspaper, restricting the matter to bilateral netting schemes.   

Vasily Gatov, the chair of the Periodic Press Publisher’s Guild believes that the reason for the deal is the building where “Izvestia” is located in relation to the fact that REN-TV rents some area near that place. (REN-TV, Pyaty Kanal and National Communications are included in the National Media Group holding, controlled by Kovalchuk. They say the holding also controls Komsomolskaya Pravda – N.R.). Mr. Gatov considers that evaluation of the unprofitable business is done through the assets of other kinds – that’s immovable property and the brand, investment to which is done only with good will of the buyer. “Political value of the newspaper was over with the dismissal of Raf Shakirov (he was fired 6 September 2004, right after Beslan events – N.R.), and it was over finally after Vladimir Borodin left (he was Vladimir Mamontov’s predecessor up to 2005)” concludes Vasily Gatov.   

However, Mr. Shakirov himself considers this deal to be political one. “It’s ridiculous to look on this deal as at a business one. If Gazprom decided to get rid of non-profile assets, it should have been done in a package as that would be more profitable”. Raf Shakirov thinks that Izvestia is still the leader in the industry in terms of authority and influence, as the newspaper is recognized to be the oldest in Russia. And the Kovalchuk’s holding where big changes are going on, just needs to possess such a leader. “Such kind of deals should be considered as sharing out of the resources important for the struggle between two groups one of which is concentrating about the prime minister and the other about president who announced in his inauguration speech about his wish to get control over the court, prosecution and investigation” said Mr. Shakirov. Centralization changing its vector the demarcation will be done inevitably and in such situation it is important to have public support through the controllable media.