MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The Kremlin has once again disproved allegations about pressure on the editorial policy of the news holding, saying that reshuffles in the holding may possibly be related to its financial performance.

"We regard as absolutely unfounded any claims that the personnel changes in the editorial office of the holding are caused in any way by pressure from the authorities," Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, adding that RBC is a private enterprise and the decisions of its owner should be explained by representatives of the company itself, "rather than by the authorities."

Peskov also said that the economic underpinning of the RBC personnel reshuffles cannot be excluded as well. "The economic situation [in the holding], of course, is well known in the professional media circles, but we don’t know whether it was caused by the decision of the management and shareholders of the holding or any other situation," the Kremlin official said.

"We can only be certain about one thing: it is absurd to link it with any kind of political pressure", the Russian presidential press secretary said.

Earlier, the press service of the holding reported that chief editor Yelizaveta Osetinskaya, chief editor of the RBC newspaper Maxim Solyus, as well as chief editor of the RBC news agency Roman Badanin left RBC on May 13. Osetinskaya worked as the RBC chief editor since the end of 2013. Before that she headed the Russian version of Forbes Magazine, as was also chief editor of the Vedomosti.ru website.

Maxim Solyus was appointed chief editor of RBC in the spring of 2014. Previously, he for almost ten years worked in the Vedomosti newspaper as deputy editor-in-chief.

Roman Badanin headed the RBC news agency since January 2014.