Leonid Nevzlin, a key figure in the YUKOS oil empire, has sold Russian newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti to an unnamed international media company, a spokeswoman for the paper said on Friday. "The deal was closed this week. The paper was purchased by an international media group," Tatiana Blinova, a spokeswoman for the paper, told Reuters.
She declined to name the company and said it would be announced on Monday. Interfax, citing the unnamed sources, said a company called Media International Group, owned by Ukrainian businessman Vadim Rabinovich, was the mystery purchaser.
Moskovskiye Novosti, or Moscow News, which is published in Russian and English, was thrown into crisis this year when chief editor Yevgeny Kiselyov fired some of the top correspondents.
The announcement of Kiselyov's own sacking could come at a meeting of the paper's employees on Saturday, Interfax reported, again citing people close to the deal.
Nevzlin, now in exile in Israel, gained a controlling stake in YUKOS when jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky handed him a 60 percent share in Group Menatep, the holding company that controls YUKOS after the Kremlin effectively nationalised its core oil unit, Yuganskneftegaz.
YUKOS has been close to collapse since the Kremlin demanded some $27 billion in back taxes and forced the sale of its main operating component.
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