Yuri Kovalchuk: Putin’s ‘general’ in war on misinformation

By John Hyatt

Marina Ovsyannikova interrupted the evening news bulletin on Russian Channel One last week, as he appeared behind a presenter of the channel holding a placard that read “No to war” and “Do not believe the propaganda. Here they are lying to you”. Authorities removed the news producer and detained her for more than 12 hours. She was fined and, according to Russian state media, is being investigated for spreading false news. “I wanted to show the world that the majority of Russians are against the war in Ukraine,” Obsyannikova told CNN. Implementation of the new Russian law against the “divergent governmental truth” would bring Obshianikova to up to 15 years in prison.

Vladimir Putin’s shadow is hovering over the Soviet-style distortion of the truth, since – for example – the use of the word “war” by the Russian media is banned and the term “special military operation” is used, the aim of which is “the de-Nazification of Ukraine,” as Moscow claims. Putin’s “general” in the war on misinformation is Yuri Kovalchuk, the 70-year-old oligarch, “close adviser” and “personal banker” of Putin, according to the US rationale for the sanctions imposed on him in 2014. Putin and Kovalchuk “almost inseparable” for the past two years, according to a Kremlin observer. Kovalchuk, through the National Media Group, is in control of the news that the Russians see and hear. He owns shares in Channel One and Russian television networks with the widest influence in public opinion. Last December, his company acquired a stake in VK: Russia’s largest social media company.

Kovalchuk and Putin are close friends. They each have their own dacha in the Karelian Isthmus, as part of the Ozero cooperative, and -according to the Panama Papers- the Russian oligarch hosted Putin’s daughter’s wedding in 2013. For the past two years, “Kovalchuk” is the “De facto No. 2 strongman in Russia and the one with the greatest influence in the” courtyard “of the president”, says the Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar.

“When people say Russian state television, it actually means ‘Kovaltsuk television,'” said Anders lslund, an expert on Russian oligarchs. “Putin does not trust the state enough. He wants the person closest to him to control the television media.”

Kovalchuk, who is estimated by Forbes to be worth $ 1.3 billion, formed the National Media Group in 2008 in collaboration with another oligarch, Alexei Mordasov. Alina Kabaeva – the rumored mistress of Vladimir Putin – is the president of the company. In addition to Channel One, National Media Group controls the popular Russian television channels 5TV, REN-TV (formerly anti-Putin network) as well as the entertainment channel CTC. In addition, it owns shares in newspapers, digital media and studios.

The National Media Group is “one of the top two players in the Russian media market. The other is the state-owned VGTRK,” said Ilya Yablokov, a professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield in England.

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

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian television networks have been broadcasting topics that Putin himself raises in his speeches or sermons. In recent days, analysts and TV presenters have been promoting US-backed conspiracy theories to develop biological weapons in Ukraine. Kyiv and the Biden government have denied the allegations.

Kovalchuk is “famous for his anti-liberal and anti-Western views” but also for his “conspiracy theories”, says Tatiana Stanovagya, a research fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center and founder of the website R. Politik. “People like Kovalchuk understand Putin’s priorities and goals,” she said. “Then they try to adapt the tactics of the media to these needs.”

In December 2021, the Kovaltsuk National Media Group acquired – from oligarch Alisher Usmanov – the majority stake in the Russian social media “giant”, VK. Following the change of ownership, VK removed much of the company’s management and upgraded Kovalchuk’s relatives, according to the independent Russian news website The Bell. Today, the VK is being used by the Kremlin to recruit mercenaries to fight in Ukraine, according to the BBC.

“VK plays an important role in manipulating public opinion, spreading the narratives that the Kremlin wants and punishing those who use social media to express alternative views,” Yablokov said. “VK is now as ‘open’ as the Russian internal intelligence services.”

Kovalchuk and Putin formed close ties in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, when Kovalchuk’s Rossiya Bank backed Putin’s political rise. Kovalchuk acted then – as he does now – in the background. David Lingelbach, a professor at the University of Baltimore, worked in Russia during the 1990s in banking and investment. He met several times with Putin – when the current Russian president was the first deputy mayor of St. Petersburg – to facilitate the movements of foreign investors. “I met most of Putin’s inner circle – Igor Setsin, Dmitry Medvedev, Alexei Miller – but I never saw or had any contact with Kovalchuk,” said Lingelbach. “Afterwards, Putin had something of a double economic life, which he co-formed with Kovalchuk.”

When Putin was elected president in 2000, Kovalchuk used Rossiya Bank to build his empire in the media, finding support for Putin’s attempt to “exterminate” the opposition press. In 2000, the Russian president arrested “media baron” Vladimir Gusinsky on fraud charges and forced him to sell his holdings in the media, including REN-TV, to state-owned Gazprom. (Since then, Gusinski, who has denied all charges, has disappeared from public life. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2004 that the charges against Gusinski were politically motivated.) Putin then “mediated” for Gazprom to sell the shares, as well as the insurance company Sogaz and other financial assets, to Rossiya Bank at a bargain price.

These transactions were part of a wider shift in wealth – in the 2000s – from the oligarchs and the Russian state into the pockets of Putin and his friends. Government assets worth more than $ 60 billion were channeled through Gazprom to Kovalsuk’s Rossiya Bank and to entities owned by Putin’s other allies – such as the Rothenberg brothers and Gennady Timchenko – during a 2004-2007 survey, according to a 2004-2007 survey. carried out by the Russian opposition Vladimir Milov and Boris Nemtsov in 2008. (Nemtsov was assassinated in 2015, when he was shot by an unknown person on a bridge in Moscow).

“In Putin’s first term, there were discussions that want non-core assets of monopolies, including Gazprom, to be channeled into the open market to boost competition,” Vladimir Milov, who has left Russia, told Forbes. “However, Putin thwarted this plan and transferred the assets to his close friends. Gazprom received nothing, the taxpayers received nothing, so instead of entering an era of reform, we set up a control system that “It was run by a small group of Putin’s friends.”

As Russia’s war against Ukraine rages, Kovalchuk’s role is strengthened. Wealthy oligarchs in Europe and the United States are “stumbling” under the weight of Western sanctions, while Putin is said to be clearing top spies and army officers in response to the “swamp” of Russian military operations.

“Kovalchuk is the man with whom Putin can share his life and visions,” Stanovaya said. “And she trusts him.”

Read also:

* How the Russian oligarchs got rich

* “Civil” oligarchs in Russia – Who disagrees with Putin’s invasion

* The “manual” of Russian oligarchs to avoid sanctions