Independent newspaper ‘RBC’ dismisses all its top editors
Maxim Soluys, the chief editor of the newspaper RBC, has been dismissed from his post. Following news of his departure, the media holding also announced the exit of RBC chief editors Roman Badanin and Elizaveta Osetinskaya.
The news website Mediazona cites its own sources at RBC, saying that Solyus was “dismissed from his job against his will,” and Badanin and Osetinskaya left RBC on mutually agreed terms.
A press release from RBC says today was the three editors' last day working at the media holding.
Nikolai Molibog, RBC's general director, said the dismissal of the journalists was the result of “disagreements on key several key issues.”
“Recently, we talked a lot about how to develop further RBC, and it was in theses conversations that we couldn't reach a consensus on some key issues, so we decided to part ways,” Molibog explained.
According to one of Meduza's sources, Irina Malkova, Badanin's first deputy editor, has been made the the acting editing director.
“I want to thank Elizaveta, Roman, and Maxim for their work and for their contributions to the development of this company,” said Nikolai Molibog, RBC's general director.
Elizaveta Osetinskaya joined RBC in late 2014, while Soluys and Badanin came to the newspaper in early 2014. Before coming to work at RBC, Badanin was the deputy chief editor at Gazeta.ru, and the online chief editor at Forbes.ru. Osetinskaya managed the Russian version of Forbes and worked as the online chief editor at Vedomosti.ru. Maxim Solyus also worked at Vedomosti as a deputy chief editor.
Osetinskaya was scheduled to depart soon on an extended sabbatical. Earlier in April, RBC announced that she would relocate temporarily to Stanford University in September. Just a few weeks later, however, it was revealed that Osetinskaya would be taking her leave of absence starting even sooner (in May).
According to sources at Reuters, Osetinskaya's decision to leave sooner might have been the result of pressure on RBC from the Kremlin.