Forbes Russia staff goes on strike, after owner stops paying them

The staff at Forbes Russia is refusing to produce content for the magazine’s September issue, until the owners pay their salaries, which were due a week ago. A source told the Telegram channel Open Media that Alexander Fedotov, the magazine’s owner, is trying to use the wage arrears to “purge” the newsroom of malcontent employees on behalf of the new chief editor, Andrey Zolotov, who has no experience working in business journalism.

In late July, the Forbes Russia editorial board appealed to state prosecutors about the disappearance of an article from their August issue about the family business of Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov. Afterwards, Fedotov promptly fired the magazine’s acting chief editor and put Zolotov in his place. The editorial board is calling on Forbes Media to reject Zolotov’s appointment.

ACMG acquired Forbes Russia from Axel Springer in 2015. After the ownership change, the outlet refused to publish information about VTB Bank president Andrey Kostin’s income in its 2016 rankings of the highest-paid Russian executives. A year later, it stopped publishing these rankings altogether.