The editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy, Alexei Venediktov, and the general director of the radio station, Yuri Fedutinov, resigned It seemed that Ekho Moskvy, this island of the former media bridge empire, was the only one able to survive in the new Gazprom ...

Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov and radio station general director Yuri Fedutinov resign

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It seemed that Ekho Moskvy, this island of the former media bridge empire, was the only one able to survive in the new Gazprom atmosphere. At least its leaders have found the diplomatic ability to exist without changing their main political and professional positions until the time when Gazprom announces the terms for the sale of its media assets.

But the idyll of one's existence among strangers did not work out. Last week, another round of crisis began in relations between the management and staff of Echo ... with Gazprom-Media, which owns more than 50 percent of the radio station's shares through its subsidiary Leadville Investment Ltd registered in Cyprus.

The formal situation is explained by a statement made by Gazprom-Media on Friday: “In accordance with the law “On joint-stock companies”, which obliges shareholders to nominate their candidates for the board of directors of their enterprise by January 31, Gazprom-Media sent its proposals to CJSC “ Ekho Moskvy and other companies. With a 50% shareholding for nine seats on the board of directors of Ekho Moskvy, all nine candidates were introduced, including Boris Yordan, Dmitry Bakatin, Vladimir Kulistikov, Rafael Akopov, Dmitry Alimov, Anton Kudryashov, Alexander Provotorov, Sergey Romashov and Philip Yalovega . At the same time, NTV television company, which owns about 2% of the radio station's shares, made its proposals - the candidacies of Savik Shuster and Rafael Akopov.

All these shareholders' proposals, formally compliant with the law, came into conflict with the preliminary agreements that were reached by the management of Ekho Moskvy with the former management of Gazprom-Media. Last summer, Alexei Venediktov and Alfred Koch managed to agree that neither of them "makes sudden moves" before the terms for the sale of the gas monopoly's media assets are announced. The employees of the radio station work as before without strikes, and the owners of more than half of the shares do not change the management and the board of directors. According to Alexei Venediktov, at the end of January, Ekho Moskvy, in turn, submitted candidates to the renewing board of directors, offering to replace Vyakhirev, Koch and Reznikov, who had retired, with Miller, Dybal and Akopov, who are now working, to introduce from the journalistic team of Buntman, Varfolomeev , Zwei, Korolev and advertising director Bogomolov, while maintaining the previously existing proportional ratio of the representatives of the parties.

“We understood that even before the annual meeting of shareholders there should be a change of ownership, therefore, an extraordinary meeting of shareholders is inevitable, at which the new board of directors should already be approved,” said Alexei Venediktov in a conversation with a Novaya Gazeta correspondent.

Venediktov believes that the fact that 232 people from TV-6 were hired by Ekho Moskvy forced Gazprom-Media to violate the preliminary agreements. "Contracts were signed a week ago, according to which they receive one ruble a day." Aelita Efimova, a spokeswoman for Gazprom-Media, categorically rejected such assumptions, and commented on the announcement of the resignation of the heads of the radio station as follows: "They have become fighters and need to attract attention, support their roles."

Alexey Venediktov, both as the editor-in-chief (the Ekho team owns 38% of the shares of his own radio station) and as the owner (he personally owns 18% of the shares), did not agree with the current proposals of Gazprom-Media, despite all their legality. “I still have 18%, which is more than LUKOIL-Garant had in TV-6,” Venediktov said. And as a shareholder, he put the issue of his own resignation from the post of editor-in-chief on the agenda of the next meeting of shareholders. The law requires such a meeting to be held by June 30. According to the charter of the radio station, three days before the meeting of shareholders, a meeting of the labor collective should be held, at which the candidacy of the editor-in-chief should be nominated.

“Everything will depend on what decisions about the sale of media assets will be made by Gazprom,” continued Venediktov. - If there is a decision to sell "Echo of Moscow" to people and companies, from my point of view, reputable, then I do not exclude the possibility of a new nomination of my candidacy for the post of editor-in-chief. If these are unreputable people and firms, then my decision to leave will be final. But in any case, on February 27 we are going to the competition for the frequency with the new Arsenal radio.

The Ekho Moskvy team, which has registered a new media outlet, radio Arsenal, intends to seriously compete with 18 competitors for a new radio frequency. The new project of the Venediktov team is supported by the Soros Foundation. In addition, the main advertisers of "Echo ..." have already announced their determination to invest not in names, but in people and are ready to transfer their advertising budgets to a new radio station. In case of victory in the Arsenal competition and the development of relations between Echo ... and Gazprom-Media, according to the worst-case scenario, Arsenal can become the place where the backbone of Echo of Moscow journalists will go. In the event of a favorable outcome of events, the Echo ... team is ready to make two radio stations.

“With the preservation of a single information service - the strongest on the air, Arsenal will still be able to become a different radio than Ekho Moskvy,” explained Alexei Venediktov. - If "Echo" is primarily news plus politics plus interviews, then "Arsenal" is conceived as a kind of information bureau, where interviews and direct communication between guests and listeners will come first.