Moskovsky Komsomolets Newspaper Re-launched in Moldova for the Third Time

The Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) has reopened its weekly publication MK Moldova, in collaboration with the editorial board of the Moldovan newspaper Kishinyovskie Novosti. It is being launched in Moldova for the third time. Like every time before, the publication is coming in a year of elections. The newspaper was last published in 2009, after which it closed.

The editor-in-chief of MK Moldova is the cofounder of the NIT television outlet Sergey Drobot. NIT, whose broadcasting license was withdrawn by the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) in 2012, had been one of the televisions affiliated to the Party of Communists (PCRM). This time Drobot assured that the PCRM will not be supported in the re-launched publication and that he will be managing the newspaper as a business.
Thus, the Deputy Director General of Moskovskij Komsomolets Oleg Vorobiev said n 22 January at the newspaper presentation in Chisinau that he had chosen the editorial board of Kishinyovskie Novosti as partner because he sees in it persons with a business approach to this project. Vorobiev added that the newspaper launched in 2009 was closed due to the political ambitions of the newspaper’s editorial board in Moldova at the time, which contradicted the company’s initial goals – the economic ones.

In his turn, the editor-in-chief of MK Moldova Sergey Drobot said that despite the latest tendency of closing print media outlets, he believes that this newspaper will enjoy success due to great numbers of potential Russian-speaking readers.

The circulation of MK Moldova is about 6,000 copies. As for the editorial policy, Drobot claimed that it will be equidistant to all political forces, but he does not exclude the fact that if a party happens to come with an initiative that would be rational in the opinion of the editorial board, that party would be presented in their materials.

Moskovskij Komsomolets first appeared on the Moldovan media market in 2002. In Russia the publication has been appearing since 1919.
According to a study produced by the American journalist and researcher David Satter for the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), the information space of Moldova is still dominated by the Russian media. The report titled The Last Gasp of Empire: Russia’s Attempts to Control the Media in the Former Soviet Republics, which was launched on 8 January, specifies that “the Kremlin does not have to do anything special to influence Moldovans because they are already loyal subscribers to the Russian media and any Russian propaganda that it carries.” The author concludes that Russia, through its mass media, seeks to promote its political and economic interests to convince the former Soviet republics to join the Eurasian Customs Union and to create an opposition to the policies of the USA and NATO.