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Echo of Moscow to get a new board of directors

Personnel of the Echo of Moscow radio station and the Gazprom-media holding coordinated a joint list of new board members

MOSCOW, February 14 (Itar-Tass) — Personnel of the Echo of Moscow radio station and the Gazprom-media holding coordinated a joint list of new board members, which will be put to vote at the shareholders' meeting on March 29, 2012, according to the official report placed on Echo of Moscow's website on Tuesday.

The statement said that the Gazprom-media shareholders demanded an early resignation of the incumbent Board.

Gazprom-media, the largest shareholder of the Echo of Moscow radio station/66 percent of the voting shares/, in full conformity with the Russian legislation, demanded on December 30, 2011, an early resignation of the incumbent board of directors of Echo of Moscow and election of a new Board, the statement said.

It noted that journalists who are the minority shareholders /34 percent of the voting shares/ "express their bewilderment at the decision, because the annual meeting, which duly replaces the Board, is to take place in June, and this haste requires an explanation."

"We regret that two independent directors – Alexander Makovsky and Yevgeny Yasin, who have been helping Echo of Moscow to develop for 11 years – should step down as a result of these events. We believe their ousting from the Board is not fair," the statement said.

Echo of Moscow journalists intend to initiate amendments to the Radio's Charter and set up an Observer /Public/ Council headed by Makovsky and Yasin, so that they could continue their efforts towards development of the company.

The statement underlines that the coordinated list of the new Board members "keeps the institution of independent /from the shareholders/ directors, and supports the candidacies of Svyazinvest director general Vadim Semyonov and former director general of Lenizdat Yevgeny Trubin."

Echo of Moscow is a round-the-clock radio, which began its operation on August 22, 1990. It is a private company, where the Gazprom-media holding has a 66-percent stake and the journalists – 34 percent, including 18 percent owned by the editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov.

The Board includes four Gazprom directors, three Echo of Moscow directors and two independent directors.

Alexei Venediktov was born in Moscow in 1955. After graduation from a specialized French language secondary school, he enrolled into the history department of a Moscow teachers' training college. He taught history at a Moscow school for two decades since 1978. Venediktov began working for Echo of Moscow in 1990. On February 26, 1998, he was appointed editor-in chief of the Echo of Moscow radio station. He has been president of the Echo-TV television company since 2002.