EURASIA INTELLIGENCE DIGEST

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06557563
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 31, 2018
• Case Number: F-2016-01256
• Publication Date: June 23, 2003

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE
23 June 2003
EID23JUNO3
Eurasia Intelligence Digest
An intelligence support message
for key policymakers
� The Russian Press Ministry this past Saturday cut off broadcasting of
the oligarch-owned TVS network, which was saddled with debt and an
unclear ownership picture.
The EID is prepared by analysts in the Office of Russian and European Analysis and features a first look at developing
events. It is not coordinated outside of OREA. Comments
are welcome
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2. Russia's TVS Goes Off the Air. Russian Press Minister Lesin last Saturday abruptly cut off
broadcasts of TVS, Russia's channel 6, replacing the broadcasts "temporarily" with a state-
owned sports channel. The demise of the debt-ridden station had been expected for several
weeks, and the only surprise was Lesin's timing�shutting off the broadcasts on Saturday
instead of Sunday deprived Chief Editor Yevgeniy Kiselev of a farewell address that he had
planned for his weekly news program.
TVS had been accumulating debts in the absence of a clear ownership structure. Employees
had not been paid in months, and the city of Moscow earlier in June cut off cable
transmissions to subscribers because of arrears. One group of owners, headed by United
Energy Systems electricity monopoly CEO Chubays, had given up on plans to buy exclusive
ownership rights from a rival group of owners led by Oleg Deripaska of "Base Element."
Deripaska, according to press reports, dragged his feet in buying out Chubays's interests as
the former held out for a lower price.
� Ownership of TVS became especially risky following a court ruling in April that essentially
reinstated the channel 6 broadcast license to MNVK, a company owned by Boris
Berezovskiy, the London-based political opponent of President Putin.
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� MNVK officials in Russia, however, have told the press that Berezovskiy's team is willing
to sell its stake, evidently recognizing that the Kremlin will not stand idly by while a
company owned by one of Putin's main enemies is granted access to national airwaves.
� Journalists' sources suggest that Deripaska will buy MNVK's shares. It is too early to say
whether he or any future owner will rehire Kiselev and his team.
Putin and his Kremlin advisers over the past three years have ensured mostly docile TV
news coverage, and the blackout of TVS represents more of a continuation of this status
quo rather than a new state-sponsored attack on freedom of speech. In fact, the Kremlin
arranged TVS's complex oligarch ownership structure, overseen by senior statesmen
Yevgeniy Primakov and Arkadiy Volskiy, last year, and Kiselev's team since then had been
careful not to press the boundaries of permissible coverage. Whoever obtains the license to
broadcast on channel 6 will adhere to the same ground rules.
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