“Vesti” was bought by a company close to Poroshenko – source

One of the largest Ukrainian media holdings, Vesti Ukraine, has changed its owner. The editor-in-chief of the Vesti newspaper Igor Guzhva sold his share in this business. The buyer was a Cypriot company that had not previously been present on the Ukrainian media market.

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UAinside.info reports this , citing a source who is an employee of the holding.

An insider said that the purchasing company is affiliated with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.

“Guzhva and the main investor had different views on the future of the holding, so Igor began to look for options for selling his share. There are those in the president’s circle who know how to evaluate media assets, so the deal went through quickly and with mutual benefit.”

In addition, the source said that Guzhva has already begun work on the creation of a new media project, which is planned to be launched in the fall of this year.

Also, information about the purchase of “Vesti” by the president was indirectly confirmed by the former head of the supervisory board of another large media holding “UMH”, ex-people’s deputy Elena Bondarenko, saying that the holding “merged” under the government:

"'Vesti' without Guzhva is nothing. The defection to the authorities is a foregone conclusion. The content of Vesti will soon make it perfectly clear whether the Presidential Administration's censors will or won't meddle with their dirty little hands in the newspaper's editorial policy. Place your bets. Will the publication survive for a month or two?!" she wrote on her social media page.

As PolitNavigator previously reported, Vesti newspaper has been repeatedly subjected to brutal pressure from the police, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and tax authorities, and its editor-in-chief has been detained by Interior Ministry officers. Furthermore, representatives of the Right Sector and the nationalist organization Vidsich have attacked the newspaper's staff.