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Gazprom takes majority stake in VK, Russia's biggest social media site
VKontakte comes under state oversight after deals with companies linked to gas monopolyhttps://www.ft.com/content/08e76970-fb82-42f9-87d3-d317189ce5b9
Russia’s largest social media network VKontakte has come under state control after a series of deals gave a majority stake to companies linked to state-run gas monopoly Gazprom.
Boris Dobrodeev, chief executive of VKontakte’s parent company VK, said on Friday he was stepping down, a day after Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s USM Group said it had sold its interest in VK to Gazprom affiliate Sogaz, an insurance company, while Gazprom Media said it had also acquired a stake.
The two will share control over VK, which was known until recently as Mail.ru, as well as other popular brands in its network, such as social media platform Odnoklassniki. VKontakte, which offers messaging and news, has about 100m active users, making it the largest social media network in Europe, according to Similarweb.
The Kremlin has recently stepped up its decade-long campaign to assert control over the internet, which has previously seen it increase its engagement with domestic internet companies.
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