SHORT TAKES….

SHORT TAKES….

Boris Berezovsky’s Novye Izvestia newspaper says the interior ministry is drafting legislation to require registration of internet users and police licensing of modems and other internet connections…. Gazprom wants to sell its stake in NTV, the station once owned by Vladimir Gusinsky (see above). Foreign companies by law may not own more than 50 percent of any television company that, like NTV, broadcasts to more than half of Russia, but parliament approved an amendment in December to exempt existing companies from the restriction. That was good news for Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and other potential foreign buyers with an interest in NTV-until Putin vetoed the amendment last week…. Boris Berezovsky’s TV-6, the independent television station closed after a court ordered the liquidation of the holding company that runs it (see above), may become an all-sports channel. Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko floated the idea, and the Russian Olympic Committee may bid to buy the station at auction. Another rumored bidder: the Russian Orthodox Church…. Krasnoyarsk’s Governor Aleksandr Lebed, the retired army general who finished third in the 1996 presidential race, lost control of the regional legislature in elections on December 23. Last week he fired his twelve deputies and announced he will replace them with nine candidates chosen by competitive examination. Lebed says he plans to run for re-election next year.