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Yuri Kovalchuk seen at a meeting of President Dmitry Medvedev with Russian and foreign shareholders of the National Media Group in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Marina Ovsyannikova interrupted Mondays evening news on Russian TVs Channel One when she appeared behind the on-air anchor holding a sign that read NO WAR, and Dont believe the propaganda. They lie to you here. Authorities whisked away the news producer and detained her for over 12 hours. She was hit with a fine and, according to Russian state media, is now under investigation for spreading false information. I wanted to show the world that the majority of Russians are against the war in Ukraine, Ovsyannikova told CNN. If convicted under Russias new law that prohibits expression deviating from government-approved truth, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looms like a dark shadow over the broader Soviet-like crackdown on accurate information that, for example, prohibits the word war from being used by Russian media. (Its called a special military operation whose goal is to rid Ukraine of Nazis.) Putins general in the disinformation war is Yuri Kovalchuk, the 70-year-old oligarch described by the U.S. government as Putins close advisor and personal banker in 2014 U.S. sanctions against him. The two men have been almost inseparable in the last couple of years, according to one Kremlin watcher. Kovalchuk, through his holding company National Media Group, has a grip on what news Russians see and hear. He owns stakes in Channel One and several of Russias most influential TV channels. In December, his company acquired a piece of VK, Russias largest social media company.

Kovalchuk and Putin are tight. They own homes in the same exclusive Ozero dacha cooperative and Kovalchuk hosted the wedding of Putins daughter in 2013, according to the Panama Papers. In the last two years, Kovalchuk has established himself as the de facto second man in Russia, the most influential among the presidents entourage, according to Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, author of a book on Putins inner circle.

When people say Russian state television, they really mean Kovalchuk television, says Anders slund, an expert on Russias oligarchy. Putin doesnt trust the state sufficiently. He wants his closest man to control television.

Kovalchuk, who Forbes estimates is worth $1.3 billion, created National Media Group in 2008 in partnership with another oligarch, Alexei Mordashov. Alina Kabaeva, widely considered Putins girlfriend, is the companys chair. In addition to Channel One, National Media Group controls popular Russian television channels 5TV, REN-TV (formerly an opposition network to Putin) and entertainment channel CTC, as well as stakes in newspapers, digital media and content studios.

The National Media Group is one of the two biggest players in the Russian media market along with state-owned VGTRK, says Ilya Yablokov, a journalism professor at the University of Sheffield in England.

The National Media Group and Kovalchuk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, media coverage on Russian TV networks have echoed themes in Putins speeches. This week, pundits and anchors have pushed conspiracy theories about Ukraine developing biological weapons with U.S. support. Ukraine and the Biden administration have denied those charges.

Kovalchuk is known for his anti-liberal and anti-Western views and his conspiracy thinking, says Tatiana Stanovaya, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center and founder of newsite R.Politik. People like Kovalchuk understand Putins priorities and goals, she said. They can feel it, and try to adapt media policy to such needs.

In December 2021, Kovalchuks National Media Group acquired a controlling stake in Russian social media giant VK from oligarch Alisher Usmanov. Following the ownership change, VK fired much of its existing management and promoted Kovalchuk relatives, according to independent Russian news site The Bell. Today, VK is being used by the Kremlin to recruit mercenaries for Russias war on Ukraine, the BBC reported.

VK is playing an enormously influential role in keeping the population under control, spreading the narratives that are favorable to the Kremlin and punishing those who use the social network for spreading alternative views, says Yablokov, the journalism professor. VK is now as open as it could be to Russian domestic intelligence services.

Kovalchuk and Putin became close in St. Petersburg during the 1990s, when Kovalchuks Rossiya Bank supported Putins political rise. Then, as now, Kovalchuk operated behind the scenes. David Lingelbach, a professor at the University of Baltimore, worked in Russia during the 1990s in banking and venture capital. On several occasions, Lingelbach met with Putin in his capacity as first deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to facilitate investments from foreign investors. I met most of the other people that Putin brought into his inner circle Igor Sechin, Dimitri Medvedev, Alexey Miller but I never once saw or had any awareness of Kovalchuk, Lingelbach says. In hindsight, Putin was leading a second sort of private economic life, which he was developing with Kovalchuk.

Once Putin was elected president in 2000, Kovalchuk used Rossiya Bank to build his media empire, powered by Putins relentless drive to kill negative press. In 2000, Putin arrested media baron Vladimir Gusinsky on charges of fraud and forced him to sell his media properties, including his crown jewel REN-TV, to state-owned Gazprom. (Gusinsky, who denied all charges, has since disappeared from public view; the European Court of Human Rights declared in 2004 that accusations against Gusinsky were politically motivated.) Putin then arranged for Gazprom to sell those media assets, as well as its insurance business Sogaz and other financial assets, to Rossiya Bank at a bargain price.

These transactions were part of a larger transfer of wealth taking place during the 2000s, from oligarchs and the Russian state into the pockets of Putin and his cronies. Over $60 billion worth of state-owned assets were funneled through Gazprom to Kovalchuks Rossiya Bank and entities owned by other Putin allies, the Rotenberg brothers and Gennady Timchenko, between 2004 and the end of 2007, according to a 2008 investigation by Russian opposition figures Vladimir Milov and Boris Nemtsov. (Nemtsov was shot to death on a Moscow bridge in 2015.)

In Putins initial term, the discussion was that all non-core assets of monopolies including Gazprom should go to open markets to create a competitive environment, Vladimir Milov, who has since left Russia, told Forbes. However, Putin completely turned that path around and transferred these assets to his cronies. Gazprom received nothing, the taxpayers received nothing, and instead of reform we shifted towards establishing a system of control under a handful of Putins cronies.

As Russias unprovoked war on Ukraine continues, Kovalchuks importance is primed to grow. Oligarchs with assets in Europe and the U.S. are reeling under Western sanctions, and Putin is reportedly closing ranks, purging some of his top spies and military officials in response to Russias faltering war effort.

Kovalchuk is someone with whom Putin can really share his life, his visions, Stanovaya says. And he trusts him.

Originally posted here:
Meet The Man Who Whispers In Putin's Ear - Forbes