Vladimir Gusinsky

Vladimir Gusinsky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky (Владимир Александрович Гусинский in Russian) (born 6 October 1952, Moscow), a Russian media baron, is known as the founder of Media-Most holding that included Most Bank, the NTV channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.
After moving abroad in the summer of 2001 he created satellite TV broadcasting company RTVi, which portrays the events in Russia as presented by the TV network Echo's journalists. The related web site newsru.com carries textual, photographic, and video news from Russia.
On August 23rd 2003, Gusinsky travelled from Israel to Athens, where he was arrested under a Greek-Russian treaty.[1] Intense pressure from American leaders (mainly from US ambassador in Athens Tomas Miller), Israeli officials on the Greek government and especially the European Jewish Congress, led to Gusinsky's release within five days.[2]
According to the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews [3], Gusinsky is a very close friend of U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos.
He holds dual Israeli and Spanish citizenship and often resides in Spain. Gusinsky also had a share of holding in Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team for a period of three and a half years, acquiring 60% of the team in November 2000.
Vladimir Gusinsky created the first independent TV channel in Russia, and also set the course for professional and objective TV news coverage in Russia. The emergence of 'NTV+', an offshoot from NTV channel, was a groundbreaking event for Russian media. NTV+ was the first satellite channel ever to broadcast in the former USSR. Gusinsky now owns the RTVi television channel.

[edit] References
^ BBC news article on arrest of Gusinsky
^ eNet article on arrest
^ FSU Monitor article on Lantos and Gusinsky
^ In Russia, a Top Rabbi Uses Kremlin Ties to Gain Power

[edit] External links
Article from the Wall Street Journal which mentions Gusinsky: [4]
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Gusinsky"
Categories: Jewish businesspeople 1952 births