Moscow (AFP)

The five deputy editors of the main Russian economic daily Vedomosti resigned on Monday after months of conflict with the new editor accused of censorship after the takeover of the newspaper.

Vedomosti is considered one of the last independent voices among the mainstream media, against the backdrop of the takeover by the government and its allies. New alternative media have also emerged online, with growing audiences.

These five journalists, present in the newspaper for 15 years or more, resign "to protest against the appointment of Andrei Shmarov as editor," the newspaper said in an article.

The title was bought at the end of May by the director of an unknown press agency, FederalPress, Ivan Iériomine.

But as early as March and the announcement by the former owner of his intention to sell the media, a new editor-in-chief had been appointed, Andreï Chmarov.

Since then, journalists have denounced the multiplication of cases of censorship, whether it is a subject on the keeping in power of President Vladimir Putin, another on the decline in its popularity or articles relating to to the oil giant Rosneft.

Monday's resignation follows confirmation Thursday by the board of directors of Andrei Chmarov in his post, while the editorial staff had proposed another candidate.

"We have no choice but to leave," said the five resigned in an open letter published by independent digital media The Bell, saying that in three months at his post Mr. Chmarov had "raped so repeated the editorial standards "of the newspaper.

"I worked here for 18 years and one day (...). But a horrible end is better than endless horror," Dmitri Simakov, one of the five resigned, told AFP.

The editorial says that the sale of Vedomosti is actually a takeover by Rosneft and his all-powerful boss Igor Setchine, very close to President Putin.

In May, Vedomosti and other Russian-speaking media revealed that Rosneft had been able to choose the new bosses of the daily economic newspaper because its bank, RRDB (Russian Regional Development Bank), had the hand of the debt of the owner of the time, Demian Koudriavtsev .

"In recent months, ten out of more than 90 journalists, including three heads of department, have left Vedomosti" because of their "reluctance to work" with Mr. Chmarov, the newspaper said.

"I would really like to be wrong, but I think that the old + Vedomosti + will soon cease to exist", regretted with AFP one of the resigned journalists, Boris Safronov.

In the 20 years since Vladimir Putin came to power, all private national television channels, many radios and newspapers have passed into the hands of owners close to the Kremlin or have disappeared.

Co-founded and co-owned in 1999 by the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and by the company Independent Media, Vedomosti accompanied the reign of Vladimir Putin.

Vedomosti has since changed hands several times, as the ability of foreigners to own Russian media has been restricted.

"This is a tragedy for Russia," Dutch entrepreneur Derk Sauer, one of Vedomosti's co-founders, told AFP, accusing the new management of "deliberately destroying the newspaper".

From the Dojd television channel to the Meduza and The Bell websites, via a multitude of projects on YouTube like the chain of the opponent Alexei Navalny, the independent media landscape has diversified on the web.

© 2020 AFP