Ruminations on Russia

This is uninformed bullshit of the worst kind.  If the journalist had bothered to look at the shareholder register of selling shareholders he would have found one Russian (sic Ivan) seller, with the remainder being US citizens or those nasty European types.

Nowhere is it mentioned that many of those nasty sellers have been investors in the business for over 10 years  having grown the business from scratch.  Everyone has a right to sell.

The journalist will find when he comes to look, that the business was founded way back by Peter Gerwe, a US citizen, and substantially all of the early money raised was US money.  Only later in its life did Alfa and MTG become shareholders.

The (libelous?) implication is that CTC stole its way to its leading independent position.  Show how and where.  It's very difficult to steal TV networks.

“Letting CTC Media's current shareholders indulge their fantasies of playing 19th-century robber barons is harmless--just don't contribute your money to the game.”

As for his assertion that CTC has a sliver of the market; time to go (back) to business school - idiot.

I am not, have never been, a shareholder of CTC Media or Story First (it's predecessor) nor do I have will I make anything from its IPO.

Robbing Sam To Pay Ivan - Forbes.com:

[composed and posted with ecto]

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