Safe seller

The oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov is preparing to sell the media holding of RBC. This was reported by Gazeta.ru with reference to sources in the market, including in the close environment of Prokhorov. Negotiations are also underway on the sale of the square company controlled by the billionaire.

The oligarch intends to "get rid of unnecessary assets", but has no plans to sell all his property, the interlocutors of the publication noted. They also said that Prokhorov does not want to leave the country.

It is claimed, the order to change the owner of RBC "was given at the highest level." The editorial policy of this publication, the interlocutors of Gazeta.ru explained, has long been discontent in the Kremlin. Publications of RBC about the youngest daughter Vladimir Putin Katerina Tikhonova and her husband Kirill Shamalov were especially painful. In addition, it is reported that the photo of Putin, which illustrated the article by the RBC about Panama offshores, was extremely negative reaction.

According to one of the interlocutors of Gazeta.ru, Prokhorov and his environment "are really scared, because they have a clear understanding that they angered the country's first person."

The most likely buyer of RBC is the "National Media Group" Yuri Kovalchuk, the publication is noted.

Among the possible buyers, the “quadras” call the structures of the oligarch Leonid Michelson.

The searches held in Prokhorov’s structures on April 14, on the Day of Putin, accelerated negotiations on the sale of assets, also reports Gazeta.ru. It is noted that the interest of the security forces in the assets of the oligarch can additionally reduce their price.

At the same time, one of the interlocutors of the publication said that the oligarch does not object to the sale of RBC, but requested too high the price for him. Everything that happens around Prokhorov’s business, according to this source, is an attempt to bring down the price of a billionaire assets.

Recently, the interlocutors of the publication said, an oligarch received a number of unfavorable signals. In particular, it is noted that on April 11, a plot entered Ren-TV in which the “quadra” and Prokhorov personally was accused of a sharp increase in tariffs for housing and communal services with low quality of these services. Such a situation was stated in the plot, developed in Voronezh, Kursk, Smolensk and other cities. The oligarch was criticized for withdrawing money to offshore.

At the same time, RBC was also attacked. The holding was accused of bias, saying that his publications were silent about the use of Offshore schemes.

One of the member of the encirclement of the oligarch noticed Gazeta.ru: "Prokhorov now does not get in touch with anyone. This was with him only once, when he was grabbed in Curshell and he was threatened with a prison."

On Thursday, it became known that the chief editor of the RBC holding Elizabeth Ossetian will go on academic leave four months ahead of schedule due to pressure from the Kremlin. As noted, the journalist became a scholarship holder of the International Program of Stanford University "Innovation in Journalism" and after the May holidays will take an academic vacation for the 2016-2017 academic year. Meanwhile, her study begins only in September.

“Within a few days preceding Prokhorov’s searches, there were several conversations with the officials of the presidential administration,” the Reuters source said in the presidential administration.

Meanwhile, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the accusation of the Kremlin’s pressure on RBC.