Russian reporters resign en masse in row over Putin ally report
Russia’s daily Kommersant lost its entire political staff in a protest that highlights censorship issues in the country’s tightly controlled media landscape
Moscow — A senior editor and 10 journalists at Russian daily newspaper Kommersant said on Monday they were resigning to protest against the firing of two colleagues over an article about a possible reshuffle of President Vladimir Putin’s close allies. The resignations, involving Kommersant’s entire political staff, highlight tensions between publishers and newspaper staff in Russia’s closely controlled media landscape, which is dominated by pro-Kremlin state outlets. The two reporters, Ivan Safronov and Maxim Ivanov, said they had been been forced to quit after Kommersant’s publishing house — owned by billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov — took umbrage at an article they authored last month. Kommersant, a leading business broadsheet acquired by Usmanov in 2006, said it was not immediately able to respond to a Reuters request for comment. The article in question, published on April 17, cited unnamed sources as saying that Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of parliam...
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