Forbes: Mikhail Lesin leaves Gazprom-Media

The Chairman of the Board of Gazprom-Media Mikhail Lesin will leave his post and leave the holding, Forbes reports with reference to the federal official and sources on the media market.

According to them, President Vladimir Putin personally made the decision to resign Lesin a week ago, Forbes.ru reports. Who will take Lesin’s post in Gazprom-Media is still unknown.

The press service of Gazprom-Media refused to comment on information about Lesin's resignation.

Mikhail Lesin headed Gazprom-Media in 2013, before that he was an adviser to the president, was a member of the Council of Directors of Channel One and National Cable Networks.

As the chairman of the board of Gazprom-Media Holding, Lesin carried out large reforms: he acquired television and radioactives of Prof Media, changed part of the personnel staff, and restructured the work of the advertising service. Lesin also took part in the most noticeable changes on the media market: the ban on advertising on paid channels, the creation of the industrial committee on telecommunications and a single advertising seller for the largest television channels.

PS Vedomosti sources, as possible candidates for the post of chairman of the Gazprom-Media board, called the former chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games in Sochi Dmitry Chernyshenko, as well as Kirill Kovalchuk, who was replaced by the chairman of the board of directors of the National Media Group, Alina Kabaeva.