Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MOSCOW8507
2006-08-09 13:50:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Moscow
Cable title:  

THE POLITICAL SKIRMISH BEHIND THE "MOSKOVSKIYE

Tags:  PGOV PINR RS 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO5329
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHMO #8507/01 2211350
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 091350Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0164
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 008507 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/02/2016
TAGS: PGOV PINR RS
SUBJECT: THE POLITICAL SKIRMISH BEHIND THE "MOSKOVSKIYE
NOVOSTI" NEWSPAPER: AN INSIDER'S VIEW

Classified By: A/POL Colin Cleary. Reasons: 1.4 (b/d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 008507

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/02/2016
TAGS: PGOV PINR RS
SUBJECT: THE POLITICAL SKIRMISH BEHIND THE "MOSKOVSKIYE
NOVOSTI" NEWSPAPER: AN INSIDER'S VIEW

Classified By: A/POL Colin Cleary. Reasons: 1.4 (b/d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Late last year, Israeli businessman Arkadiy
Gaydamak bought the liberal weekly newspaper "Moskovskiy
Novostiy" (MN) and promptly announced it would become a
pro-Kremlin publication. The newspaper's deputy editor in
chief, Svetlana Babayeva, told us July 31 that over half a
year after that move, the newspaper's future direction
remains unclear, although no one on the staff questions that
MN will promote Kremlin views. Most notably, Babayeva told
us, the move appears to have been made at the instruction of
Presidential Administration (PA) deputy head Vladislav
Surkov, who wants control of the newspaper to counter
Presidential press spokesman Aleksey Gromov's growing
influence over the media. Babayeva offers an interesting
description over how the skirmishing inside the Kremlin is
playing out with regard to the fate of a once venerable
liberally oriented newspaper. END SUMMARY.
.

2. (U) Controversial Israeli businessman Arkadiy Gaydamak
stirred controversy in October 2005 when he bought the weekly
newspaper "Moskovskiye Novostiy" and promptly declared that
he would transform it into a pro-Kremlin publication. The
newspaper had previously been run by opposition journalist
Yevgeniy Kiselev, under whom it had gone through difficult
times. Shortly after making his purchase, Gaydamak pulled
what some saw as another surprise by appointing Vitaliy
Tretyakov, a political analyst and founder of Nezavisimaya
Gazeta, as chief editor of MN. In what some also saw as
surprising, Svetlana Babayeva, widely considered an
independent journalist despite her recent stint in the London
bureau of the GOR-affiliated press agency RIA-Novosti, was
made Tretyakov's deputy.
.
SURKOV VS GROMOV
--------------


3. (C) Some media insiders had told us that PA deputy head
Surkov had become actively engaged with MN. Indeed, Ekho
Moskvy chief editor Aleksey Venediktov had told us that
Surkov had personally called Babayeva to ask that she assume
the MN deputy editorship. In our July 31 conversation,
Babayeva denied getting any such call from Surkov but
believed that he had suggested her as a potentially promising

candidate for the position.


4. (C) Nonetheless, Babayeva said she was convinced that
Surkov had been behind the Gaydamak deal. Over the past
year, Babayeva continued, Presidential spokesman Gromov had
been gaining increasing power over the media, in part at
Surkov's expense. That shift, Babayeva posited, resulted
because Putin trusted Gromov to "clear the media field" ahead
of the 2007-08 election cycle. Surkov, wanting to maintain
influence within the media, sought to develop MN as "his own"
newspaper, according to Babayeva. Gromov certainly perceived
things that way, Babayeva continued: when she had asked for
Gromov's assistance with access to Russian officials during
the St. Petersburg G8 Summit, he had responded, with obvious
irritation, that she should pose such requests to Surkov,
since she was working for Surkov's newspaper.


5. (C) The Surkov-Gromov rivalry was part of the continuing
infighting within the Kremlin, which was growing more intense
as the national election cycle neared, Babayeva said. She
noted that curious alliances sometimes formed, with Surkov
reportedly even briefly allying with the PA's other deputy
head, Igor Sechin. Those reports had been backed by rumors
that Surkov had even put in his office a photo of himself
standing with Sechin. Visiting Surkov's office and not
seeing that photo, Babayeva decided to ask him about it, she
related. Surkov had responded -- apparently in all
seriousness -- that he had displayed it briefly but then
removed it.
.
UNCERTAINTY ABOUT MN'S DIRECTION
--------------


6. (C) Such skirmishing put MN in a difficult situation,
Babayeva said. Similarly, the newspaper was hamstrung by
having a chief editor more interested and experienced in
analyzing politics than in managing a newspaper. Gaydamak
had never expected MN to become profitable but wanted the
newspaper to be at least somewhat commercially viable. Yet
MN's staff was still waiting for Tretyakov to provide some
direction on a strategy to boost readership and advertising,
Babayeva continued, without which the newspaper would remain
in its long-standing rut.
.
COMMENT
--------------


MOSCOW 00008507 002 OF 002



7. (C) Babayeva has long been a valued Embassy contact who
has given us some fascinating insights into the Kremlin's
workings. While her story about a brief Surkov-Sechin
alliance may not be convincing, her description about how a
Surkov-Gromov rivalry plays out with regards to a newspaper
looking to become more pro-Kremlin sounds more persuasive.
Gaydamak's purchase of the newspaper removed it from the
hands of the outspokenly oppositionist Kiselev, and may have
turned it into something of a potential political instrument
for Surkov, although it has yet to result in a more
financially viable publication and its future remains unclear.
RUSSELL