STS channel director Daria Legoni-Fialko told Vedomosti that she will resign from this position.

"I am leaving the post of head of the STS TV channel. I thank Vyacheslav Murugov (CEO of STS Media - Vedomosti) and the STS Media team for our joint experience. I am proud of the results we have achieved in less than two years," she conveyed through a representative of the TV channel.

Murugov will be in charge of the channel's operational management, a representative of STS Media told Vedomosti. He did not specify whether this was a temporary measure.

The channel's representative does not name the reasons for Legoni-Fialko's departure. A person close to the media holding said that she is leaving due to differences in views on the development strategy of the STS TV channel. But Legoni-Fialko continues negotiations on launching new projects, including content production, says Vedomosti's source. He did not specify what projects exactly are being discussed. Vedomosti's source also does not specify who will take the position of director of the STS channel and whether such a position will remain. The channel's representative does not comment on this.

"Since Daria took over as head of STS , the channel's share has been growing steadily, reaching 10%. The channel is in good operational condition and is rightfully one of the leaders in national broadcasting in the entertainment segment," the holding's representative reported Murugov as saying.

Legoni-Fialko became the director of STS in September 2016, before that she managed the TV-3 channel (part of the competing holding Gazprom-Media). STS is the flagship channel of the holding of the same name, it also includes the channels Domashniy, Che and STS Love. The owners of STS Media are the holding UTV (75% of shares) and the Cypriot Telcrest, the main shareholders of the latter are the structures of Yuri Kovalchuk and the VTB Group. At the end of last year, it became known that a long-standing partner of STS, the team of the production company Yellow, Black & White, was moving to Gazprom-Media and in January 2018 launching a new entertainment channel, Super.

In 2016, Murugov was appointed CEO of STS Media , replacing Yuliana Slashcheva in this position. At that time, Murugov almost completely replaced the holding's team, including the heads of the channels. One of his main tasks was to increase STS's audience.

Earlier, the RBC publication wrote about Legoni-Fialko leaving the TV channel, citing three sources in the media market. According to the publication, Legoni-Fialko has Ukrainian citizenship. Amendments to the law on mass media prohibit persons with citizenship of another country or dual citizenship from holding the position of general director of a media outlet since 2016. A person close to the media holding clarified that Legoni-Fialko's departure is not related to her citizenship.

The functions of the general director at the STS TV channel are assigned to the STS Media company itself.

STS channel no longer has a director