TIME - The Dark Side of Murdoch's Russian Billboard Business (2011)

[TomCADem]

It seems that Murdoch's ties to Putin and Russia go far beyond Murdoch's ex-wife reportedly dating Putin.

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2085878,00.html

Pieces of Rupert Murdoch's empire continue to fall away. Last month, as British police continued to investigate phone-hacking claims against the News of the World, the media magnate sold off his Russian billboard company, News Outdoor, for around $270 million, less than a fifth of the value it had three years ago. The sale marked a quiet end to one of Russia's oddest corporate sagas, and looking back, the troubles of the British tabloids seem almost tame compared with the murder and corruption scandals in the Russian billboard market, which Murdoch's company dominated for nearly a decade.

By all accounts, the unexpected break for Murdoch in the Russian ad market came in 2002 after the assassination of Vladimir Kanevsky, then the billboard king of Moscow. In February of that year, at an intersection near the Kremlin, a man in a black ski cap walked up to Kanevsky's car and pumped five rounds into his head and chest. Because of a weapons check at the security firm that protected him, Kanevsky's bodyguards happened to be unarmed that day, and the killer managed to escape. But aside from this peculiar detail, the fact of the murder was not extraordinary. Kanevsky had a lot of enemies, and hired hits were still a fairly common way of resolving disputes in Russia, which had not yet tamed the capitalist free-for-all that followed the Soviet collapse. Between 1996 and 2004, at least 11 Russian advertising executives were killed or wounded in contract hits, with car bombs and knifings among the methods used. Only two of those crimes have been solved.

For Murdoch, the killing of Kanevsky presented a surprise opportunity. The media mogul had acquired News Outdoor less than two years earlier, in November 2000, from a group of Russian businessmen, and had given the reins to Maxim Tkachev, a seasoned operator in Moscow's business circles. Tkachev had started out producing and selling bootleg CDs of bands like Deep Purple and Pink Floyd in the late 1980s, and went on with a group of college friends to create the billboard firms that Murdoch would later acquire. Less than two years after the deal, Tkachev had made News Outdoor the leading player in practically every major Russian city except for Moscow, where Kanevsky's company stood in the way.

The two men had known each other since 1995, when both were starting out in the billboard business. "Kanevsky was what I would call a hooligan, but a smart one," Tkachev says. "He was always willing to negotiate, and his business earned my respect." But one thing Kanevsky had never talked about was a desire to sell his assets, which included the most lucrative outdoor ad space along Moscow's central drags. His murder meant it would soon go on the market. "I had a revelation that it was time to get out," recalls Kanevsky's partner, Mikhail Lerner, who spoke to TIME by phone from his vacation home in Sicily. "I decided to go into a cleaner business — digital technologies."

[czarjak]

1. Old enough to remember Bircher Billboards. S.O.S.

[TomCADem]

2. FBI looking at Murdoch operations in Russia (2012)

Given the funny business associated with Murdoch's dealings in Russia, you have to assume that Putin has the inside scoop on Murdoch's actions and can both threaten his business interests as well as potentially expose him criminally.

https://www.reuters.com/article/murdoch-russia/fbi-looking-at-murdoch-operations-in-russia-idUSL2E8E7HJN20120309

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, March 9 (Reuters) - An FBI investigation into possible criminal violations by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp of a U.S. law banning bribery of foreign officials has expanded to include an examination of the activities of former company holdings in Russia, according to a source close to the investigation.

As part of their inquiry, the FBI will seek to consult with Russian authorities, the source said.

While at this point it is not expected that a special FBI team will go to Russia to pursue the probe, the FBI’s representative at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, known as the “legal attache,” is likely to be involved, the source said.

The company’s activities in Russia are being looked at as part of a broader FBI investigation into possible violations by News Corp of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - an inquiry fueled by allegations that journalists for Murdoch newspapers in Britain for years systematically made questionable payments to public servants, including police and military officials, in return for story tipoffs.