BORIS BEREZOVSKY

. Gusinsky’s Media Most group, which includes NTV television, faces claims from creditors now totaling over $600 million, arguably more than the company is worth. In addition, the prosecutor general wants to question Gusinsky in connection with allegations that Media Most assets were illegally moved abroad to put them out of creditors’ reach. Gusinsky, whose troubles began when his media properties refused to board Putin’s political bandwagon in late 1999, is outside the country and may not return….. Unlike Gusinsky’s NTV, Boris Berezovsky’s ORT went down the line with Putin in 1999 parliamentary and 2000 presidential elections. Even so, as with NTV the government is calling in loans to pressure Berezovsky into surrendering his equity. Prosecutors have also revived old charges that Swiss companies under Berezovsky’s control laundered money from Aeroflot, the airline he acquired in a suspect privatization deal. Berezovsky, who says he will appear before the prosecutor on October 17, defends himself in an October 16 Washington Post op-ed piece that accuses the Putin administration of blackmail and warns of the “danger of restoration of an authoritarian regime” (see www.washingtonpost.com).