All deputy chief editors resign from formerly independent newspaper ‘Vedomosti’

Five deputy chief editors resigned from Vedomosti on Monday, after the newspaper’s parent company made Andrey Shmarov’s appointment as editor-in-chief permanent. 

Dmitry Simakov, Boris Safronov, Filipp Strekin, Kirill Kharatyan, and Alexander Gubsky all stepped down in protest. Gubsky had worked at Vedomosti since it was founded in 1999. The other deputy chief editors had been with the paper for roughly 15 years.

Meduza has also learned that online deputy chief editor Alexandra Chunova and economic correspondent Anna Chervonnaya have stepped down, as well.

Earlier on Monday, the board of directors at “Business News Media,” Vedomosti’s publisher, confirmed Andrey Shmarov’s appointment as editor-in-chief. Shmarov has served as the newspaper’s acting editor-in-chief since March 2020, when Vedomosti’s previous owners announced the sale of the publication. Shmarov has been a controversial steward from the start, offending staff with statements about sexual harassment and journalistic ethics and actively censoring the newspaper’s coverage of the oil company Rosneft, which is believed to have orchestrated Shmarov’s appointment.