VZCZCXRO7764
RR RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHYG
DE RUEHVK #0105 2960304
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 230304Z OCT 09
FM AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1220
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 1325

UNCLAS VLADIVOSTOK 000105 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SCUL RS
SUBJECT: VLADIVSOTOK MAYOR ACQUIRES ANOTHER NEWSPAPER, BLOW TO PRESS 
FREEDOM 
 
REF: VLADIVOSTOK 2 
 
¶1. Summary: (U)  The editorial staff of Moskovskiy Komsomolets 
vo Vladivostoke (MKV), one of the most aggressive independent 
newspapers in Primorskiy Kray, has received a note that Moscow 
owners of Moskovskiy Komsomolets (MK) have sold the franchise 
for publishing the Vladivostok edition to a company affiliated 
with Vladivostok Mayor Igor Pushkaryev.  This is the second 
large regional paper bought by Pushkaryev this year and a second 
serious loss for press freedom in the region. 
 
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Vladivostok Mayor ruins successful independent paper in 
Primorskiy Kray 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) According to MKV staff writer Elena Kochugova, the news 
that the MK owners had sold the Vladivostok franchise to Mayor 
Pushkaryov was absolutely unexpected.  Since its founding in 
1997, the MKV franchise belonged to PARI (Primorye Agency of 
Advertising and Information), held by a private entrepreneur 
Artoush Khatchatryan.  The PARI formula of success was quite 
unique for the local media environment:  Khatchatryan hired a 
limited number of the most professional and vitriolic 
journalists and paid them very high salaries for extensive 
investigative articles on local political scandals, corruption 
and crime, living conditions, public health problems etc.  Such 
local stories were mixed with the articles and entertainment 
sections from the Moscow edition, thereby turning MKV into one 
of the most successful papers in the region.  For twelve years 
in a row, PARI has sold 30,000-35,000 copies targeting an 
independent-minded middle class.   This formula will never work 
after the MKV purchase by Mayor Pushkaryev. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------ 
MKV purchase may reveal Pushkaryev's political ambitions 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) MKV is the second independent newspaper Pushkaryev 
acquired after he took  office in the summer of 2008. "Everybody 
wonders why he is doing that.  He is either going to become a 
local media mogul or has high political ambitions.  But he 
definitely put himself under a big risk in both cases," declared 
 Andrey Ostrovskiy, Chief Editor of Novaya Gazeta vo 
Vladivostoke.   Pushkaryev has already ruined Vladivostok, the 
only city daily he bought just a year ago.  In January 2009, 
Pushkaryev fired the daily's chief editor, who dared to publish 
a story on Vladivostok's protest against second-hand car import 
restrictions, stating that the paper must totally support 
Edinaya Rossia (see reftel).  In eight months, 90 percent of 
staff writers left the Vladivostok Daily, and the paper recently 
stopped its retail sales.  However this experience has not 
discouraged Pushkaryev. "In addition to MKV he tried to buy TNT 
Vladivostok, a local TV company, but Primorskiy Governor Sergey 
Darkin used his influence to stop the deal," stated  Ostrovskiy. 
 In the past TNT belonged to Vladivostok Mayor Vladimir 
Nikolayev and actively supported him during his clash with 
Governor Darkin in 2007.   Nikolayev eventually lost - he was 
imprisoned and then was forced to leave Vladivostok - but Darkin 
definitely remembers anti-Governor reports broadcast by TNT and 
would not want another Mayor to own the TV company.   With the 
purchase of MK, Pushkarev also created a number of enemies among 
the most vitriolic investigative journalists. PARI published the 
last MKV edition on 22 October.  In the last edition journalists 
announce they are leaving MKV to launch a new weekly 
"Tikhookeanskiy Komsomolets" that will undoubtedly be 
anti-Puskaryev biased. 
 
---------------------- 
Comment 
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¶4.  (U)  The MKV purchase is another serious loss for press 
freedom in Primorskiy Krai on account of Vladivostok Mayor Igor 
Pushkaryev.  Aleksey Rasputnyy, a former MKV editor, considering 
such deals to be the trend, commented that "in the 1990s, local 
politicians fought media in courts; now they are just buying 
them."  Pushkaryev's media activity reveals his high political 
ambitions but may also put both his investments and status at 
risk. 
 
ARMBRUSTER