adminMaxim Kovalsky said yesterday he had been dismissed as editor of Kommersant-Vlast over the magazine’s Monday edition, which included several articles examining alleged electoral violations favouring Prime Minister Putin’s United Russia party.
The dismissal appeared to serve notice that Putin still holds vast influence over Russian media, despite mass protests against his rule and a decline in his ruling party’s support at the election.
“The reason is the issue about the election,” Kovalsky said. He said he believed the Kremlin had put pressure on Kommersant Publishing House owner Alisher Usmanov, a billionaire metals tycoon, and that he had no regrets about the publication.
“I acted absolutely consciously and believe I did the right thing,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Metalloinvest, a company owned by Usmanov, confirmed that Kovalsky and the head of the magazine’s parent company Kommersant-Holding, Andrei Galiyev, had been fired.
Asked for comment, the spokeswoman sent a report on gazeta.ru, a news site also owned by Usmanov, that cited Usmanov as saying unspecified material that appeared in recent issues of Kommersant-Vlast had violated journalistic ethics.
“These materials border on petty hooliganism,” the news site quoted Usmanov, a billionaire who is part-owner of the London soccer club Arsenal, as saying. It reported that he was considering suing Kovalsky. — Xinhua.
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