A Greek publisher reportedly has bought a controlling share of Pravda, the former Communist Party newspaper that has fallen on hard times since the party was banned last year.
The Greek firm Steel Light Ltd., owned by Yannis Yannikos, is bailing out the newspaper that was the mouthpiece of the ruling party for seven decades, the ITAR-Tass news agency and Rossisskaya Gazeta newspaper reported this week.The Yannikos family runs the Greek publishing house Akadimos, which specializes in books from the former Soviet Union and Cuba.
The sale was first reported July 30 by the Athens newspaper Pontiki, which said Yannikos bought 55 percent of Pravda for 1 million rubles and a pledge to cover its debts of 60 million rubles. At that time, one U.S. dollar was trading for about 100 rubles, making the deal worth about $610,000.
Pravda's deputy editor-in-chief, Alexander Ilyin, confirmed the sale to ITAR-Tass and Rossisskaya Gazeta, but declined to give any details.
ITAR-Tass said the foreign partners agreed not to interfere in the editorial content of the newspaper.
Yannikos could not be reached for comment. Family members in Greece said he was on vacation. His son Stathis, who deals with family business matters, declined to discuss the reported deal.
Pravda, founded by Vladimir Lenin in 1912, reached a peak circulation of 13 million in the 1970s and was long considered the Soviet Union's most authoritative newspaper. Western diplomats and Kremlinologists read between the lines to detect internal debates and personnel changes.