MOSCOW: The holding of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has sold its shares in a media conglomerate that owns Russia’s largest social network VKontakte to a company controlled by energy giant Gazprom, a statement said Thursday. The transaction is the latest sign of increasing government control of Russian social networks and internet platforms that are available to the country’s domestic audience.
Insurance company Sogaz, of which Gazprom is the largest shareholder, said in a statement on Thursday it had purchased a 45 percent share in a company that held a controlling stake in VK. VK, formerly known as Mail.ru Group, includes Vkontakte, another social network Odnoklassniki and other online services.
“The cost of the transaction is not disclosed,” Usmanov’s holding USM said in a separate statement. VKontakte is Russia’s equivalent of Facebook and says it has an audience of 97 million users.
Usmanov’s empire — which had previously invested in Facebook — appears to be moving towards focusing its activities in the mining and telecom sectors. Usmanov said in a statement that involvement in VK has “largely determined the development” of his holding.
He added that his company is leaving VK at its “peak”. In recent years, the Russian government has used the pretext of protecting minors and fighting extremism to control the Russian segment of the web and began developing a so-called sovereign internet.
Russia’s opposition accuses the Kremlin of using such regulations to further stifle freedom of speech and clampdown on online dissent. Gazprom appears to be at the forefront of bringing the Russian segment of the internet under the control of authorities.
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