Angry head of Russia's Gazprom media arm quits
By Clara Ferreira-Marques
MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The man who led Russian gas giant Gazprom's bruising takeover of the country's main independent television station quit on Friday, saying he had been turned into a puppet.
Russian liberals have said the Kremlin used state-controlled Gazprom as an instrument to silence NTV television, which was often critical of the Kremlin.
The natural gas giant maintains that its takeover of the heavily indebted NTV was a purely commercial affair, but it caused disquiet among Western leaders about media freedom in President Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Alfred Kokh, the head of Gazprom's media arm who was appointed as chairman of NTV after the takeover, said he had been sidelined from decision-making.
"I was pushed out in the most banal way and with the help of very basic bureaucratic intrigues," he told NTV.
"I can stand face-to-face confrontation, but I cannot stay if somebody begins to push me out bit by bit, smiling and nodding, isolating me from decision-making and turning me into a puppet. I do not know how to fight against this."
Kokh's resignation coincided with an announcement by Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller, after a meeting with NTV management and editorial staff, that the firm planned to sell its media assets.
"The board of directors is of one opinion on this matter, that Gazprom has spent large amounts of money on non-core operations. And our main business is our most important concern," Miller said in an NTV interview.
NTV BOSS BACKS SELL OFF
NTV chief Boris Jordan said in a statement on the channel that a change in ownership would be positive for the company.
"Gazprom is a gas company, so for them NTV is not a core asset," said Jordan, a U.S. banker placed at the station's head by Kokh. "For more than a year we have asked Gazprom to decide on the future of our channel, and put it up for sale."
It was not immediately clear who might take NTV off Gazprom's hands. Before April's takeover NTV's founder Vladimir Gusinsky had tried to interest CNN founder Ted Turner.
The prospect of foreign ownership sparked fierce political debates over limiting foreign stakes in Russian TV networks.
Kokh had led months of battles, punctuated by court confrontations, allegations of financial mismanagement and raids on NTV offices by bailiffs, to wrest control of NTV from media magnate Gusinsky's Media-Most concern.
After police secured control of NTV headquarters, he told journalists to stop their protests and get back to work.
Since the takeover, NTV's biting criticism of the Kremlin and its two-year war in rebel Chechnya has been toned down.
Liberal politician Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opponent of Gazprom's takeover, praised Kokh's move and accused the Kremlin of further attempts to muzzle criticism.
"With presidential and parliamentary elections coming up, the authorities apparently don't want to let go of NTV," he told NTV.
"They are continuing to step on press freedoms. They already have (state-controlled channels) ORT and RTR, but they also want to keep NTV under their thumb."
