Vladimir Gusinsky

Early life and education

Early career

• Stage Director for the Ted Turner Goodwill Games in the Kremlin Palace.
• Founded one of the first cooperatives following Perestroika - Cooperative "Metal" - which started to produce metal garages and later copper bracelets and other fashion jewelry in mass quantities.

• Founded the cooperative "INFEKS" under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR, which engaged in consulting of foreign companies entering into the Russian market.

• Created the joint venture "Most", together with APCO.
• Gusinsky established "Most Bank", one of the first and one of the largest private retail banks in Russia. The first ATM allowing cash withdrawals in Russia was installed by Most Bank in Russia in 1994.

• Founded a holding company "Most Group". All of Gusinsky's business assets, totaling 42 companies, including Most Bank and a number of construction companies, were integrated into this holding structure.

  Involvement in media

• Gusinsky, together with a number of leading journalists, established Sevodnya, a daily political newspaper.
• In the end of 1993, Gusinsky, together with several leading TV journalists and media experts – such as Igor Malashenko, Evgeni Kiselev and Oleg Dobrodeev – founded the first private television channel in Russia: NTV. NTV's main focus was independent and uncensored news and unbiased political shows, and their slogan was "News Is Our Profession".

• The First Chechen War started in 1994. NTV provided pro-Chechen coverage of the war and was often critical of the Russian government.
• In December 1994, the President's Secret Service was ordered to attack Gusinsky's offices. As a result, Gusinsky and his family had to leave Russia. Gusinsky was able to return in May 1995, while during his absence NTV and all his other media assets continued their independent editorial policy and coverage of the war.

• Gusinsky was one of the founders of the Russian Jewish Congress, and in January 1996 was elected its president.
• In February 1996, in Davos, during the World Economic Forum, together with Boris Berezovsky, he organized a meeting of Russia's most prominent businessmen. The group met to decide how to support the Presidential bid of Yeltsin and to prevent the communists from returning to power. Further, the group contacted Anatoli Chubais, the creator and advocate of Privatization, and convinced him to lead and manage Yeltsin's presidential campaign.
• The elections for the President of Russian Federation took place in June 1996. President Yeltsin was elected in the second round of the election. Many international and domestic observers considered these to be the first elections in Russia to approach the western democratic standards.

  Consolidation and development of media assets

• Gazprom, the state owned natural gas giant, became a 30% shareholder of NTV.
• A US based media investor Capital Group became a 5% shareholder in NTV and 5% shareholder in TNT - a regional network.

• "Most Group" consolidated all its media assets in a new entity - "Media Most". Gusinsky resigned from his positions in "Most Group" and "Most Bank", became president of "Media Most", and focused all his efforts on the development of the media business.
• The new media holding company included NTV, TNT, NTV Plus, Echo Moscow, Publishing house Seven Days, other radio stations, internet development companies, movie studios and media design companies.
• "Media Most" was the largest media holding in Russia and, based on the number of viewers and readers, and possibly one of the largest in Europe. Gusinsky was hailed as the "Rupert Murdoch" of Russia.
• While Gusinsky never participated in privatization – all his assets were created from scratch, in 1997, Gusinsky made his first, and last, attempt at privatization – he bid for the privatizing of the state owned telecommunication giant Svyazinvest. The bid ended unsuccessfully for Gusinsky, and many commentators have accused Gusinsky of using his media assets to influence his bid and it resulted in a large public scandal.
• In mid-1997, a banking consortium led by Credit Suisse First Boston was preparing NTV for a public offering on NASDAQ at a valuation in 1.2 - 1.4 billion US Dollars, with a large portion of the proceeds from the IPO to be used for development of the business.

• The 1997 Asian Economic Crisis severely impacted the Russian economy in 1998. This led to Russia defaulting on its domestic debts and declaring a moratorium on payments to foreign creditors in August 1998. The financial default put a stop to the NTV's attempted IPO.
• Subsequently, in order to continue "Media Most" development and in anticipation of an economic rebound following Russia's default, "Media Most" received a credit from Credit Suisse First Boston, guaranteed by Gazprom. The money was invested in "Media Most" business development.
• In November 1998, "Media Most" satellite, Bonum 1, built by US Hughes Communications was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. This was the first private commercial satellite in Russia, and for the first time a US built and launched satellite was controlled from the territory of Russia. The satellite provided DTH satellite delivery services for "Media Most" NTV Plus.

  Confrontation with Kremlin

• An alliance that included President Yeltsin, Yeltsin's relatives, and a group of powerful businessmen, publicly known as the "Family", brought in Vladimir Putin as the successor to President Yeltsin. At the same time, Gusinsky positioned himself outside of the "Family" and as a result he was accused of supporting the election of anti-Kremlin alliance of Primakov & Luzhkov. This was the beginning of the conflict between Gusinsky, the Family, and Putin.
• In September 1999, there were a number of terrorist attacks in Moscow and other cities in Russia. Several buildings were bombed and many people were killed. The Kremlin took the position that Chechen separatists were responsible for the bombings. Around the same time, a group of neighbors residing in an apartment building found a large quantity of explosives in the basement of their building, and reported it to FSB. At that time a group of independent journalist investigators exposed certain facts that connected the explosives with individuals connected with FSB. Gusinsky's NTV decided to take an independent stance and launched an in-depth public journalistic investigation – investigating the possibility that FSB was staging explosions in an effort to influence the upcoming elections. Gusinsky was given an ultimatum to remove this "independent investigation" from NTV, or else face the consequences. Gusinsky refused to end the investigation. Furthermore, a number of independent commentators accused the Kremlin and Putin of organizing the explosions, prompting the new Chechen war, with the goal of increasing Putin's popularity in anticipation of elections. This was the breaking point in the relationship between Gusinsky and the Kremlin, the Family, and Yeltsin's successor Putin.
• On 31 December 1999, President Yeltsin resigned, and Vladimir Putin became the acting president of Russia.

• In January, Gusinsky was elected as the vice president of the World Jewish Congress.
• With the Yeltsin's resignation bringing Putin to Acting Presidency, and the subsequent election in May 2000 that brought Putin to power, one of the first publicly criticized acts of new president Putin was the commencement of an investigation against Gusinsky with the goal of putting NTV under government control and effectively silencing the opposition.
• In June, the Prosecutor General office launched an investigation against Gusinsky for misappropriation of funds in connection with a company "Russian Video". On 13 June, he was arrested in Moscow and incarcerated into the infamous Butyrka Prison.
• Shortly after his arrest, representatives of the Kremlin proposed to Gusinsky to sell "Media Most" to Gazprom-Media at a price that Gazprom-Media sets, 300 million US Dollars, in return for his freedom. Subsequently, this became known as "shares for freedom" transaction or Protocol No. 6 that was signed by acting Minister Lesin in his capacity as head of the Ministry of Press, Broadcasting and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.
• A public scandal ensued, and the day after Gusinsky's arrest on 14 June, US President Clinton was asked at a press conference about his thoughts on Gusinsky's arrest. Clinton replied that he did not think that people should be arrested for criticism of Kremlin. Moreover, Putin, who was visiting Spain at the time of the arrest, had to answer questions in its connection. One of Putin's answers was – "I do not know anything about it, and cannot get in touch with the Prosecutor General of Russia."
• After three days and much public pressure, scandal, and speculation, Gusinsky was released from prison and placed under house arrest on 16 June. Several weeks later, in July, he signed an agreement selling all his media assets for 300 million US Dollars. The criminal investigation was closed, and Gusinsky immediately left Russia. From that time Gusinsky never returned to Russia. On his last drive to the Moscow airport, he was accompanied by Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader who was assassinated in February 2015 near Kremlin.
• Outside of Russia, Gusinsky repudiated the deal as being executed under duress.
• Shortly after Gusinsky left Russia, CEO of Gazprom Media Alfred Koch, asked the Russian Prosecutor General to launch a new investigation against Gusinsky and Media Most, alleging improper use of Gazprom's guarantees to attract credits. The Prosecutor General's Office asked Interpol's head office in Lyon, France, to issue an international arrest warrant for Gusinsky's detention and extradition. Interpol's head office declined the Russian request, asking to clarify the reason to make sure it did not violate Interpol Charter, that forbids intervention based on political character. Eventually, Interpol firmly refused to issue any warrant of arrest for Gusinsky, and when Russian authorities appealed the refusal the Interpol headquarters firmly upheld their refusal.
• On 17 November, Media Most signed a settlement agreement for Gazprom's guarantees and for current and future obligations. Immediately after signing the settlement agreement, Gazprom Media's Alfred Koch wrote to the Prosecutor General letting him know that the settlement agreement was successfully executed and thanking him for his assistance. Even with this settlement agreement being signed by Gusinsky under a threat of arrest and extradition, Gazprom conceded that Media Most's assets were fairly valued in excess of 1.1 billion USD.
• However, ignoring the settlement agreement, and ignoring the Interpol head office's refusal to issue the international arrest warrant, the Russian local branch of Interpol circumvented the head office's refusal, went directly to the Spanish local branch of Interpol and requested it to detain and extradite Gusinsky.
• On 12 December, Gusinsky was arrested in Spain based on the Russian request. The arrest warrant was issued by Justice Balthazar Garzon.
• On 22 December, Justice Balthazar Garzon released Gusinsky from prison and places him under house arrest in Gusinsky's home in southern Spain. The decision to release Gusinsky was strongly criticized in Spain, and was appealed by prosecution, as it is uncommon for a foreigner facing extradition to be released and placed under house arrest.