MOSCOW - Russia's most influential tabloid newspaper is to come under the Kremlin's direct control as the Government tightens its already vice-like grip on the media ahead of crunch elections next year.
Komsomolskaya Pravda is set to be subsumed into the media wing of state-controlled energy giant Gazpromby January at the latest.
Once the transaction is complete, more than 90 per cent of Russia's media assets will be in the hands of the state or affiliated structures, a prospect that alarms proponents of free speech.
Founded in 1925, Komsomolskaya Pravda has a daily print run of up to 830,000 copies during the week and 3.1 million copies at weekends and an estimated readership of 10 million, many of them housewives and blue collar workers.
Gazprom's board is chaired by Dmitri Medvedev, the First Deputy Prime Minister and one of the leading candidates to succeed President Vladimir Putin in 2008.
