Controversial US financier Boris Jordan was named head of the independent NTV channel Tuesday, a spokesman for Gazprom, the state-dominated gas company which effectively took control of the television station, said.
The appointment followed a general shareholders' meeting called by Gazprom, the station's main shareholder, to install its board of directors at NTV, the only independent nationwide television station in Russia.
The takeover by Gazprom, which is 38 percent owned by the state, has sparked concern at home and abroad that the Kremlin is moving to eliminate the only major source of media criticism in Russia.
Jordan however insisted that he would safeguard NTV's editorial independence and that he had been drafted in to turn the financially-troubled television station around.
"Today, NTV is facing financial crisis, it is in technical default and there is a real danger of bankruptcy. My first priority is to stabilize the situation and return the company to a position of financial independence.
"This will allow us to ensure NTV enjoys the editorial independence that has become its trademark," he said in a statement sent to AFP.
Yevgeny Kiselyov, the station's current director, had warned viewers on Sunday that Gazprom was going to replace him with Jordan, criticizing the American's reputation after his role in mid-1990s Russian privatizations.
Jordan, the son of Russian immigrants, was denied a Russian visa after he ended up on the winning side of the disputed 1997 sale of the Svyazinvest phone company.
Alfred Kokh, then minister for privatizations, was accused of taking bribes from an associate of Jordan.
Kokh now heads Gazprom's media arm, Gazprom-Media, and was appointed head of the NTV board of directors Tuesday -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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