In June Gusinsky spent four days in jail, and early last week federal agents moved to seize his Moscow home. Then prosecutors suddenly dropped charges of embezzlement against him, declaring the case closed for “lack of evidence”– raising fears that Gusinsky might tone down print and broadcast criticism of Putin in return. Gusinsky’s aide says he “would never strike such a deal.” But Gusinsky’s NTV station is struggling to reschedule a $211 million debt to Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom. The partly state-owned Gazprom has offered to swap the debt for shares in the station–a deal that one source close to the Kremlin says may now go ahead, giving Gazprom a “significant” stake in NTV and, perhaps, a say in its editorial policies.
Gusinsky’s reprieve came just a day before Putin met with 18 other tycoons in the Kremlin. The so-called oligarchs want Putin to stop investigating murky privatization deals struck in the mid-1990s. In return, they promise “to play by the rules… pay taxes and respect the law,” said Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who initiated the meeting. Putin seemed to be holding all the cards. “You helped create this [situation]. Don’t scold the mirror for what you see in it,” he told his guests.
