Russian media boss ignores summons

Berezovsky: 'difficult decision'

MOSCOW, Russia -- A second Russian media boss has refused to return to Russia to face questions about his business, a day after another media mogul also ignored prosecutors' summons.

Boris Berezovsky, a Kremlin insider under former president Boris Yeltsin, said he had "taken the difficult decision" not to return to Russia to answer the summons on Wednesday.

His refusal comes a day after an arrest warrant was issued for Vladimir Gusinsky, who has been charged in absentia with fraud in relation to his Media-Most publishing and broadcast empire.

Both men say the cases brought against them were aimed at smothering criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

Gusinsky owns Russia's only independent nationwide television network, while Berezovsky controls 49 percent of one of the two main state television networks.

ALSO Media mogul charged with fraud

Berezovsky has been summoned to answer prosecutors' questions about alleged profit-skimming from the national flagship carrier Aeroflot.

"The president is trying to impose his control over the main mass media, with the goal of setting up a regime of personal power," Berezovsky said in his statement.

An effort to secure editorial independence for Gusinsky's media collapsed on Tuesday when gas giant Gazprom, which holds nearly $500 million in Media-Most debt, withdrew from an out-of-court settlement.

Media-Most announced a deal three days ago that would have allowed it to clear about half of its debt to Gazprom without losing editorial independence. Details were supposed to be made public on Tuesday, but instead, Gazprom said it was pulling out.

Media-Most claimed prosecutors had blocked the deal, which it said would also have eliminated any criminal complaint against Gusinsky. Gazprom officials said they concluded the deal was unlawful and decided to pull out.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Russian gas giant drops Gusinsky deal
November 14, 2000
Russian media mogul charged with fraud
November 13, 2000
Kremlin eyes independent media
August 2, 2000

GAZPROM
MediaMost

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