Vladimir Gusinsky - Biography

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky (Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Гуси́нский; born 6 October 1952) is 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.

Life and career

Gusinsky was born in Moscow.

Alexander Korzhakov, former chief of the RF president's security service, told journalists that Berezovsky had tried to talk him into assassinating Vladimir Gusinsky, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, singer and Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon, and others (Novy Vzglyad newspaper, 19 October 1996).

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 23, 2003, Gusinsky travelled from Israel to Athens, where he was arrested under a Greek-Russian treaty for fraud amounting to millions in damages. 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.

According to the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, Gusinsky was 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.

Gusinsky created NTV, the first independent TV channel 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.

Until November 2008, Gusinsky held 27% of prominent Israeli newspaper Maariv shares, which he exchanged with Bank Hapolaim to recover a $28 million debt to the bank.

Gusinsky and fellow Russian businessmen Konstantin Kagalovsky. launched on March 17, 2008 Ukrainian TV station TVi. They split due to a business dispute and Kagalovsky controls and continues to fund TVi on his own.

External links

• Article from the Wall Street Journal which mentions Gusinsky: In Russia, a Top Rabbi Uses Kremlin Ties to Gain Power.
• His biography
• ECHR judgment