Power games in Moscow

Since his re-election as Russian President in March, Vladimir Putin appears to have taken steps to ensure that he and his key allies remain unchallenged.

In the years since he came to power in 2000, Putin has presided over what could be seen as the neutralisation of Russia's once vibrant independent media. This has been achieved by a range of methods, including the seizure of assets of leading critics, the removal of independent-minded directors and the intimidation of journalists and their sources.

The defining moment for Putin was probably the negative media coverage generated by the Kursk submarine disaster in August 2000. State broadcaster RTR was quickly brought to heel, while control of Russia's largest broadcast network ORT passed back into what could be seen as state control in February 2001, followed by the seizure of Vladimir Gusinsky's Media Most group and its flagship television channel NTV in April 2001. The last major independent broadcaster, Boris Berezovsky's Channel 6, was taken over in August 2001, leaving the Kremlin with an effective monopoly over Russia's national broadcast media.

The seizure of media empires in 2001 was, in many respects, a dress rehearsal for the current battle being waged to gain control of oil producer Yukos, which accounts for 20 per cent of Russia's oil output. Yukos' former chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is currently on trial in Moscow having been charged last year with embezzlement, fraud and tax evasion.

The Yukos case is seen by most observers as fulfilling a two-fold objective: to discourage the country's super-rich oligarchs from meddling in politics (Khodorkovsky had been funding opposition groups, as well as having acquired the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper, which the president feared could become an influential mouthpiece for dissidents) while providing the state with an opportunity to break up powerful - and largely independent - privatised strategic enterprises that the Kremlin hardliners want to see back under their control.

HERE