NTV Russia
Encyclopedia
NTV is a Russian television channel. As a subsidiary of Vladimir Gusinsky
's company Media-Most, it was a pioneer in the post-Soviet
independent television media, but was later taken over by state-owned Gazprom
.
, Mikhail Osokin, Yevgeniy Kiselyov, Vladimir A. Kara-Murza
(father of Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
), Victor Shenderovich
and others. The channel set high professional standards in Russian television, giving live coverage and sharp analysis of current events. Its political puppet show Kukly
("Puppets"), had become a signature of the time when the freedom of speech was virtually unlimited. NTV was reputed for its news operation and popular entertainment programmes. In the late 1990s it ran prime-time news show Segodnya ("Today") with Mitkova and Osokin daily at 7 p.m and 10 p.m and weekly news commentary programme Itogi ("Summing up") with Kiselyov on Sundays at 9 p.m., both top-rated.
NTV was heavy on criticism of the Russian government, especially with respect to the First
and Second Chechen War
s (even going as far as conducting interviews with Chechen rebel leaders). However, it favourably commented President Boris Yeltsin
's re-election campaign in 1996.
By 1999 NTV had achieved an audience of 102 million, covering about 70% of Russia's territory, and was available in other former Soviet republics.
During parliamentary elections in 1999 and presidential elections in 2000 NTV was critical of the Second Chechen War
, Vladimir Putin
and the political party Unity backed by him. In the puppet show Kukly in the beginning of February 2000, the puppet of Putin acted as Little Zaches in a story based on E.T.A. Hoffmann
's "Little Zaches called Cinnabar", in which blindness causes villagers mistake an evil gnome for a beautiful youth.
This provoked a fierce reaction of Putin's supporters. On February 8 the newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti
published a letter signed by the Rector of St. Petersburg State University Lyudmila Verbitskaya, the Dean of its Law Department Nikolay Kropachyov and some of Putin's other presidential campaign assistants that urged to prosecute the authors of the show for what they considered a criminal offence.
, NTV featured the Ryazan events of Fall 1999
in the talk show Independent Investigation. The talk with the residents of the Ryazan apartment building along with FSB public relations director Alexander Zdanovich and Ryazan branch head Alexander Sergeyev was filmed few days earlier. On March 26 Boris Nemtsov
voiced his concern over the possible shut-down of NTV for airing the talk.
Seven months later NTV general manager Igor Malashenko said at the JFK School of Government
that Information Minister Mikhail Lesin
warned him on several occasions. Mr. Malashenko's recollection of Mr. Lesin's warning was that by airing the talk show NTV "crossed the line" and that the NTV managers were "outlaws" in the eyes of the Kremlin.
According to Alexander Goldfarb, Mr. Malashenko told him that Valentin Yumashev
brought a warning from the Kremlin one day before airing the show promising in no uncertain terms that the NTV managers "should consider themselves finished" if they would go ahead with the broadcast.
Viktor Shenderovich claimed that an unnamed top government official requested NTV to exclude the puppet of Putin from Kukly. Accordingly, in the following episode of the show, called "Ten Commandments
", the puppet of Putin was replaced with a cloud covering the top of a mountain and a burning bush.
The program Itogi went on investigating corruption in Russian government and the autumn 1999 blasts in Russia
.
On June 13, 2000, Gusinsky was detained as a suspect in the General Prosecutor Office's criminal investigation of fraud between his Media-Most holding, Russkoye Video - 11th Channel Ltd. and the federal enterprise Russkoye Video. At the time, Media-Most was involved in a dispute over the loan received from Gazprom. On the third day, however, he was released under the written undertaking not to leave the country.
On July 15 the puppet of Putin acted in the Kukly show as Girolamo Savonarola
.
On July 19 investigators of the office of Prosecutor General of Russia
came to Gusinsky's home, distrained and arrested his property.
In a surprisingly informal deal, the charges against Gusinsky were lifted after he signed an agreement with Mikhail Lesin
, Minister of Media, on July 20. Under the agreement, Gusinsky would discharge his debts by selling Media-Most to Gazprom, which had held a 30% share of NTV since 1996, for the price imposed by the latter, and was given a guarantee that he would not be prosecuted. After leaving the country, Gusinsky claimed he was pressured to sign the agreement by the prospect of the criminal investigation. Media-Most refused to comply with the agreement.
Tax authorities brought a suit against Media-Most aiming to wind it up.
On January 26, 2001, Gazprom announced that it had acquired a controlling stake of 46% in NTV. The voting rights of a 19% stake held by Media-Most was frozen by a court decision.
Putin met with leading NTV journalists on January 29, but the meeting changed nothing. The parties reasserted their positions; Putin denied any involvement and said that he could not interfere with the prosecutors and courts.
Around that time American media mogul Ted Turner
appeared to be going to buy Gusinsky's share, but this has never happened.
On April 3 Gazprom Media
headed by Alfred Kokh
by violating the procedure conducted a shareholders' meeting which removed Kiselyov from the NTV Director General position.
On April 14, 2001 Gazprom
took over NTV by force and brought in its own management team. Its director-general Yevgeniy Kiselyov was replaced by Boris Jordan
. Many leading journalists, including Yevgeniy Kiselyov, Svetlana Sorokina, Viktor Shenderovich, Vladimir A. Kara-Murza
, Dmitry Dibrov, left the company. Leonid Parfyonov and Tatyana Mitkova
remained. Kiselyov's Itogi program was closed down, replaced by Parfyonov's Namedni.
Citizens concerned by the threat to the freedom of speech in Russia argued that the financial pressure was inspired by the Vladimir Putin
's government, which was often subject to NTV's criticism. Some tens of thousands of Russians rallied to the call of dissident NTV journalists in order to support the old NTV staff in April 2001. Within the next couple of years, two independent TV channels which absorbed the former NTV journalists, TV-6 and TVS, were also shut down.
In January 2003 Boris Jordan
was ousted as director general and replaced by Nikolay Senkevich, son of TV-presenter Yuri Senkevich
from Channel One. A few days earlier he was also discharged from Media-Most director-general position, where he had replaced Alfred Kokh
in October 2001. As insiders claimed, Jordan was sacked because NTV had carried a live translation of the culmination of the Moscow theater siege
in October 2002 and had been too critical of the way authorities handled it.
Since then, entertaining talk-shows have become more prominent on NTV, rather than political programmes. However, unlike other leading TV channels in Russia, NTV went on reporting on-the-fly about some opposition activities and government failures, including the conflagrating fire of the Moscow Manege
on the day of Russian presidential elections
on March 14, 2004, and the assassination of the pro-Russian President of Chechnya Akhmad Kadyrov
on Victory Day
May 9, 2004.
On June 1, 2004, Leonid Parfyonov, one of the last leading journalists from the old NTV staff who remained, and who was still critical of the government, was ousted from the channel, and his weekly news commentary programme Namedni was taken off the air. Its last announced episode never aired. Shortly before this, Parfyonov had been forbidden to present an interview with Malika Yandarbieva, widow of Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. Zelimkhan Yandarbiev had been assassinated in exile in Qatar
earlier that year. Parfyonov had shared this decision with the public on May 31.
On July 5, 2004, Senkevich was replaced by Vladimir Kulistikov (b. 1952) as director general of NTV. Tamara Gavrilova, formerly a fellow student with Vladimir Putin at Leningrad State University, was appointed deputy director general.
Soon the political programmes Freedom Of Speech hosted by Savik Shuster
(Shuster works in Ukraine
since 2005), Personal Contribution hosted by Alexander Gerasimov, and Red Arrow were closed down.
, as well as weekly news commentary programme Real Politics hosted on Saturdays from 2005 to 2008 by political analyst and key Kremlin adviser Gleb Pavlovsky
.
Vladimir Gusinsky
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky is a Russian media baron, is known as the founder of Media-Most holding that included Most Bank, the NTV channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.-Life and career:Gusinsky was born in Moscow....
's company Media-Most, it was a pioneer in the post-Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
independent television media, but was later taken over by state-owned Gazprom
Gazprom
Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...
.
History
Vladimir Gusinsky's company was founded in 1993 and attracted the best journalists and news anchors of the time: Tatiana Mitkova, Leonid ParfyonovLeonid Parfyonov
Leonid Gennadievich Parfyonov is a Russian news anchor, journalist and an author of some popular TV shows. From December 3, 2004 until December 20, 2007 he was an Editor-in-Chief of the Russian edition of Newsweek....
, Mikhail Osokin, Yevgeniy Kiselyov, Vladimir A. Kara-Murza
Vladimir A. Kara-Murza
Vladimir A. Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist and TV host.-References:...
(father of Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist, historian and politician. He studied in Great Britain at the John Lyon School in Harrow, London, and graduated with an B.A. and M.A. in History from Cambridge University...
), Victor Shenderovich
Victor Shenderovich
Victor Anatolievich Shenderovich is a popular Russian satirist, writer and scriptwriter. In 1980, Shenderovich graduated from the Moscow State Art and Cultural University, specialising in "direction of volunteer theatrical groups"...
and others. The channel set high professional standards in Russian television, giving live coverage and sharp analysis of current events. Its political puppet show Kukly
Kukly
Kukly was a weekly Russian TV show of political satire, produced by Vasily Grigoryev and shown on Saturdays on the TV channel NTV. It used puppets to represent celebrities, mainly the major politicians....
("Puppets"), had become a signature of the time when the freedom of speech was virtually unlimited. NTV was reputed for its news operation and popular entertainment programmes. In the late 1990s it ran prime-time news show Segodnya ("Today") with Mitkova and Osokin daily at 7 p.m and 10 p.m and weekly news commentary programme Itogi ("Summing up") with Kiselyov on Sundays at 9 p.m., both top-rated.
NTV was heavy on criticism of the Russian government, especially with respect to the First
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
and Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
s (even going as far as conducting interviews with Chechen rebel leaders). However, it favourably commented President Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
's re-election campaign in 1996.
By 1999 NTV had achieved an audience of 102 million, covering about 70% of Russia's territory, and was available in other former Soviet republics.
During parliamentary elections in 1999 and presidential elections in 2000 NTV was critical of the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
and the political party Unity backed by him. In the puppet show Kukly in the beginning of February 2000, the puppet of Putin acted as Little Zaches in a story based on E.T.A. Hoffmann
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann , better known by his pen name E.T.A. Hoffmann , was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist...
's "Little Zaches called Cinnabar", in which blindness causes villagers mistake an evil gnome for a beautiful youth.
This provoked a fierce reaction of Putin's supporters. On February 8 the newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti
Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti
The Vedomosti was the first newspaper printed in Russia. It was established by Peter the Great's ukase dated 16 December 1702. The first issue appeared on 2 January 1703.- Petrine Vedomosti :...
published a letter signed by the Rector of St. Petersburg State University Lyudmila Verbitskaya, the Dean of its Law Department Nikolay Kropachyov and some of Putin's other presidential campaign assistants that urged to prosecute the authors of the show for what they considered a criminal offence.
The talk show with people of Ryazan and FSB members
On March 24, 2000, two days before the presidential electionsRussian presidential election, 2000
Russian presidential elections were held on 26 March 2000. Incumbent Prime Minister, and acting President Vladimir Putin, who had succeeded Boris Yeltsin on his resignation December 31, 1999, was seeking a four-year term in his own right and won the elections in the first round. Polling stations...
, NTV featured the Ryazan events of Fall 1999
Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
in the talk show Independent Investigation. The talk with the residents of the Ryazan apartment building along with FSB public relations director Alexander Zdanovich and Ryazan branch head Alexander Sergeyev was filmed few days earlier. On March 26 Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
voiced his concern over the possible shut-down of NTV for airing the talk.
Seven months later NTV general manager Igor Malashenko said at the JFK School of Government
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
that Information Minister Mikhail Lesin
Mikhail Lesin
Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin is a Russian political figure, and currently an adviser to the Russian president. Lesin is credited as the creator of the RT television news network "to establish a news channel that would counter CNN and BBC -- with a Moscow spin"...
warned him on several occasions. Mr. Malashenko's recollection of Mr. Lesin's warning was that by airing the talk show NTV "crossed the line" and that the NTV managers were "outlaws" in the eyes of the Kremlin.
According to Alexander Goldfarb, Mr. Malashenko told him that Valentin Yumashev
Valentin Yumashev
Valentin Yumashev is a Russian journalist and politician, member of the inner circle of President Boris Yeltsin. He was Editor-in-Chief of Ogonyok in 1995-1996. In 1996 he was appointed adviser to President Boris Yeltsin for public relations. In March 1997 Yumashev succeeded Anatoly Chubais in the...
brought a warning from the Kremlin one day before airing the show promising in no uncertain terms that the NTV managers "should consider themselves finished" if they would go ahead with the broadcast.
Change of the management
On May 11, 2000, tax police, backed by officers from the general prosecutor's office and the FSB, stormed the Moscow headquarters of NTV and Media-Most and searched the premises for 12 hours. Critics considered this move politically motivated, as NTV voiced opposition to Putin since his presidential electoral campaign. Putin denied any involvement.Viktor Shenderovich claimed that an unnamed top government official requested NTV to exclude the puppet of Putin from Kukly. Accordingly, in the following episode of the show, called "Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
", the puppet of Putin was replaced with a cloud covering the top of a mountain and a burning bush.
The program Itogi went on investigating corruption in Russian government and the autumn 1999 blasts in Russia
Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
.
On June 13, 2000, Gusinsky was detained as a suspect in the General Prosecutor Office's criminal investigation of fraud between his Media-Most holding, Russkoye Video - 11th Channel Ltd. and the federal enterprise Russkoye Video. At the time, Media-Most was involved in a dispute over the loan received from Gazprom. On the third day, however, he was released under the written undertaking not to leave the country.
On July 15 the puppet of Putin acted in the Kukly show as Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar, Scholastic, and an influential contributor to the politics of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and what he thought the Renaissance—which began in his...
.
On July 19 investigators of the office of Prosecutor General of Russia
Prosecutor General of Russia
The Prosecutor General of Russia heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russian Federation ....
came to Gusinsky's home, distrained and arrested his property.
In a surprisingly informal deal, the charges against Gusinsky were lifted after he signed an agreement with Mikhail Lesin
Mikhail Lesin
Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin is a Russian political figure, and currently an adviser to the Russian president. Lesin is credited as the creator of the RT television news network "to establish a news channel that would counter CNN and BBC -- with a Moscow spin"...
, Minister of Media, on July 20. Under the agreement, Gusinsky would discharge his debts by selling Media-Most to Gazprom, which had held a 30% share of NTV since 1996, for the price imposed by the latter, and was given a guarantee that he would not be prosecuted. After leaving the country, Gusinsky claimed he was pressured to sign the agreement by the prospect of the criminal investigation. Media-Most refused to comply with the agreement.
Tax authorities brought a suit against Media-Most aiming to wind it up.
On January 26, 2001, Gazprom announced that it had acquired a controlling stake of 46% in NTV. The voting rights of a 19% stake held by Media-Most was frozen by a court decision.
Putin met with leading NTV journalists on January 29, but the meeting changed nothing. The parties reasserted their positions; Putin denied any involvement and said that he could not interfere with the prosecutors and courts.
Around that time American media mogul Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
appeared to be going to buy Gusinsky's share, but this has never happened.
On April 3 Gazprom Media
Gazprom Media
Gazprom-Media is the largest Russian media holding founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Gazprom. In 2000 it acquired NTV, the only nationwide state-independent television in Russia of the time, as well as other media assets of Vladimir Gusinsky's Media Most group, which raised a major controversy...
headed by Alfred Kokh
Alfred Kokh
Alfred Reingoldovich Kokh is a Russian writer, mathematician-economist, and businessman of ethnic German origin.He served as a deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin and was an ally of economic reformer Anatoly Chubais, a chief architect of Russia's privatization...
by violating the procedure conducted a shareholders' meeting which removed Kiselyov from the NTV Director General position.
On April 14, 2001 Gazprom
Gazprom
Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...
took over NTV by force and brought in its own management team. Its director-general Yevgeniy Kiselyov was replaced by Boris Jordan
Boris Jordan
Boris Jordan is an American businessman of Russian origin. He speaks both English and Russian fluently.An American of Russian ancestry, Boris Jordan assisted Russia's economic transition to capitalism in the early '90s, assisting in the launch of the Russian stock market and the privatization of...
. Many leading journalists, including Yevgeniy Kiselyov, Svetlana Sorokina, Viktor Shenderovich, Vladimir A. Kara-Murza
Vladimir A. Kara-Murza
Vladimir A. Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist and TV host.-References:...
, Dmitry Dibrov, left the company. Leonid Parfyonov and Tatyana Mitkova
Tatyana Mitkova
Tatyana Mitkova is a Russian television journalist for NTV. She became famous in 1991 for refusing to read the official Soviet Union version of the military response to the uprising in Lithuania...
remained. Kiselyov's Itogi program was closed down, replaced by Parfyonov's Namedni.
Citizens concerned by the threat to the freedom of speech in Russia argued that the financial pressure was inspired by the Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's government, which was often subject to NTV's criticism. Some tens of thousands of Russians rallied to the call of dissident NTV journalists in order to support the old NTV staff in April 2001. Within the next couple of years, two independent TV channels which absorbed the former NTV journalists, TV-6 and TVS, were also shut down.
In January 2003 Boris Jordan
Boris Jordan
Boris Jordan is an American businessman of Russian origin. He speaks both English and Russian fluently.An American of Russian ancestry, Boris Jordan assisted Russia's economic transition to capitalism in the early '90s, assisting in the launch of the Russian stock market and the privatization of...
was ousted as director general and replaced by Nikolay Senkevich, son of TV-presenter Yuri Senkevich
Yuri Senkevich
Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich was a Soviet doctor, scientist. He is Candidate of Sciences. He became famous in the USSR and worldwide for his participation in the Ra Expedition, in which he sailed together with Thor Heyerdahl.Senkevich was born of Russian parents in Mongolia...
from Channel One. A few days earlier he was also discharged from Media-Most director-general position, where he had replaced Alfred Kokh
Alfred Kokh
Alfred Reingoldovich Kokh is a Russian writer, mathematician-economist, and businessman of ethnic German origin.He served as a deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin and was an ally of economic reformer Anatoly Chubais, a chief architect of Russia's privatization...
in October 2001. As insiders claimed, Jordan was sacked because NTV had carried a live translation of the culmination of the Moscow theater siege
Moscow theater hostage crisis
The Moscow theater hostage crisis, also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege, was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the...
in October 2002 and had been too critical of the way authorities handled it.
Since then, entertaining talk-shows have become more prominent on NTV, rather than political programmes. However, unlike other leading TV channels in Russia, NTV went on reporting on-the-fly about some opposition activities and government failures, including the conflagrating fire of the Moscow Manege
Moscow Manege
Moscow Manege is a large oblong building which gives its name to the vast Manege Square, which was cleared in the 1930s, adjacent to the more famous Red Square...
on the day of Russian presidential elections
Russian presidential election, 2004
Presidential elections were held in Russia on 14 March 2004. Incumbent Vladimir Putin was seeking a second full four-year term. He was re-elected with 71.31% of the vote.-Sergey Glazyev:...
on March 14, 2004, and the assassination of the pro-Russian President of Chechnya Akhmad Kadyrov
Akhmad Kadyrov
Hajji Akhmad Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov , also spelled Akhmat, was the Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War...
on Victory Day
Victory Day (Eastern Europe)
Victory Day or 9 May marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War...
May 9, 2004.
On June 1, 2004, Leonid Parfyonov, one of the last leading journalists from the old NTV staff who remained, and who was still critical of the government, was ousted from the channel, and his weekly news commentary programme Namedni was taken off the air. Its last announced episode never aired. Shortly before this, Parfyonov had been forbidden to present an interview with Malika Yandarbieva, widow of Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. Zelimkhan Yandarbiev had been assassinated in exile in Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
earlier that year. Parfyonov had shared this decision with the public on May 31.
On July 5, 2004, Senkevich was replaced by Vladimir Kulistikov (b. 1952) as director general of NTV. Tamara Gavrilova, formerly a fellow student with Vladimir Putin at Leningrad State University, was appointed deputy director general.
Soon the political programmes Freedom Of Speech hosted by Savik Shuster
Savik Shuster
Savik Shuster is a journalist and host of Ukrainian TV shows as The Freedom By Savik Shuster and Shuster Live on Pershyi Natsionalnyi...
(Shuster works in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
since 2005), Personal Contribution hosted by Alexander Gerasimov, and Red Arrow were closed down.
Late 2000s
From 2006 to 2009, NTV ran weekly news commentary programme Sunday Night in a talk-show format and political talk-show On The Stand, both hosted by Vladimir SolovyovVladimir Solovyov (journalist)
Vladimir Rudol'fovich Solovyov is a popular Russian TV and radio journalist. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys and completed post-doc position at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations...
, as well as weekly news commentary programme Real Politics hosted on Saturdays from 2005 to 2008 by political analyst and key Kremlin adviser Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Olegovich Pavlovsky is a Russian national, political scientist . He was an adviser of the Presidential Administration of Russia until April 2011. During the Soviet times he was prosecuted as a dissident....
.
Artistic design
The "NTV" logo as well as the iconic green sphere was designed by Simon Levin, the Russian designer, and became a symbol for the new graphic language of television design in Russia.External links
- NTV Official Website
- NTV fact file: From Gusinsky to Gazprom, CNN, April 10, 2001, covers the period 1993–2001
- NTV: Timeline of events, CNN, April 10, 2001, covers the period 1993–2001
- Analysis: Russian media troubles, BBC News, 14 April 2001
- in quotes: NTV takeover, BBC News, 15 April 2001 Спецпроект: Апрель 2001 (Spetslproyekt: Aprel' 2001, "Special Project: April 2001"), TV-6 Russia (history of the defeat as seen by the journalists and viewers). Computer translation.
- Chamber judgment in the case of Gusinskiy v. Russia, European Court of Human Rights, May 19, 2004. Е. В. Трегубова (Yelena Tregubova), Байки кремлевского диггера (Baiki kremlevskogo diggera, "The Kremlin Digger's Tales"), The Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations, undated. Computer translation. Виктор Шендерович (Viktor Shenderovich), Здесь Было НТВ "NTV was here, part 1". Computer translation. Виктор Шендерович (Viktor Shenderovich), Куклиада (Kukliada, "The Kukliad". Computer translation. Владимир Прибыловский (Vladimir PribylovskyVladimir PribylovskyVladimir Valerianovich Pribylovsky is a Russian historian, journalist and human rights advocate opposed to current Russian authorities.-Biography:...
) & Юрий Фельштинский (Yuriy Felshtinsky), Операция "Наследник" (Operatsya "Naslednik", "Operation 'Successor'"), Biblioteka Maxima Morcova. Алла Боссарт (Alla Bossart) Защита Буратино (Zashita Buratino, "The Buratino Defence"), Novaya GazetaNovaya GazetaNovaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
, 12 April 2001, No 26.] Евгения Альбац (Yevgenia AlbatsYevgenia AlbatsDr. Yevgenia Markovna Albats is a Russian investigative journalist, political scientist, writer and radio host. As of year 2011, she workes as a chief editor of The New Times magazine.-Early life and education:...
), Кому Продали НТВ: Чекисты подминают под себя СМИ (Komu Prodali NTV: Chekisti podminaut cebya SMI), "To whom NTV has been sold: FSB (literally, 'ChekistsChekaCheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
') is taking over NTV"), Novaya Gazeta 2 October 2002, No 72. Юлия Латынина (Yuliya Latynina), Я Сам Буду Вашим Цензором (Ya sam budu vashim tsenzorom, "I will be your censor myself"], Novaya Gazeta, 20 January 2003, No 4. Место Парфенова. Вместо Парфенова (Myosto Parfyonova. Vmyosto Parfyonova, "The place of Parfyonov; Instead of Parfyonov"), Izvestia, 5 June 2004 Александр Рыклин (Alexander Ryklin), Если звезды гасят, значит, это кому-нибудь нужно (Yesli zvezdi gasyat, znayait, zhto komy-nibud' nuzhno, "As the stars are extinguished, someone needs it"), EJ 123 (Ежедневный Журнал / Yezhednevni Zhournal), 8 June 2004 Александр Рыклин (Alexander Ryklin), Нарушитель этических норм (Narushitel' zticheskich norm, "Transgressor of ethical norms"), EJ 123 (Ежедневный Журнал / Yezhednevni Zhournal), 8 June 2004 - David Warsh, In Which, At Last, We Meet, Perhaps, Andrei Shleifer’s Evil Twin, Economic Principles, April 16, 2006.