Alexei Venediktov

Alexei Venediktov
Native name	Алексей Алексеевич Венедиктов
Born	(1955-12-18) 18 December 1955 Moscow
Alma mater	Moscow State Pedagogical University
Station(s)	Echo of Moscow
Country	Russia

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Alexei Alexeyevich Venediktov (Russian: Алексе́й Алексе́евич Венеди́ктов; born 18 December 1955) is a Russian journalist, editor-in-chief, host and co-owner^[1] of the Echo of Moscow radio station, as well as the president of Echo TV Russia.

Biography

Venediktov was born in Moscow. His paternal grandfather Nikolai Andrianovich Venediktov served in NKVD and was awarded an Order of the Red Star for taking part in court-martials and creating barrier troops during the Great Patriotic War.^[2] His father Alexei Nikolaevich Venediktov was a navy submarine officer killed in a storm shortly before Alexei's birth. His mother Eleonora Abramovna Dykhovichnaya was a doctor of Jewish origin; she came from a generation of prominent engineers. In 1983 she along with Alexei's sister emigrated to America.^[3] One of her cousins was a film director Ivan Dykhovichny. A popular musician Andrey Makarevich also happens to be Alexei's distant relative.^[4]

Venediktov graduated from the evening division of Moscow State Pedagogical University in 1978. After graduation, he worked as a postman for some time, then as a history teacher for 20 years straight, 19 of them — at the Moscow school №875.^[5]

Since 1990 he has been working for Echo of Moscow.^[5] He started as a newspaper observer and reporter, then headed the news division. Since 1998 he has been working as the editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow. Since 2002 Venedictov has been also serving as the president of Echo TV Russia.

In 2006 he co-hosted a short-living TV show In the Light Circle with Svetlana Sorokina at the Domashny TV channel. It was shut down in just two weeks, supposedly for its harsh critics of the Judiciary of Russia, although the producer Alexander Rodnyansky denied it had anything to do with politics.^[6]

On February, 2012 Venediktov resigned from the board of directors in protest against the Gazprom-Media announcement to change the board.^[7] He later said that it was Vladimir Putin who personally saved him and his station from closer by Mikhail Lesin. According to Venediktov, this happened at least twice during the Dmitry Medvedev's presidency.^[8]

By 2015, 33.02% of all Echo of Moscow's shares used to be owned by the American company EM-Holding, with 1/3 of them belonging to Venediktov and Yuri Fedutinov (currently a chief executive at the station) and others — to the Israeli media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky and his partners. But in 2015 the Russian State Duma passed a new law forbidding foreign citizens to own more than 20% of all shares in a national media company. In order to bypass it, a Russian-based company named Echo of Moscow Holding Company was registered. As of 2016, it owns 13.10% of total shares (with 49.5% of them belonging to Venediktov alone), while the American company controls 19.92% of shares.^[1]

Venediktov described his political views as conservative and himself — as a reactionary, with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher representing his «ideals in politics».^[9]

He is a member of the Public Board of the Russian Ministry of Defence^[10] and the Civic Chamber of Moscow since 2016.^[11]

Honours

• II class Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (1999)^[12]
• Legion of Honour (France, 2006)^[13]
• Gold Cross of Merit (Poland, 2014)^[14]
• Award «Golden Pen of Russia» (1996)
• Award of Artyom Borovik (New York, 2008)^[15]
• Medal of Security Council of Russia (1998)

References

External links

• Confessions of Moscow’s Last Independent Radio Newsman interview at The Daily Beast (June 15, 2015)
• Echo in the Dark article at The New Yorker (September 22, 2008)
• Alexei Venediktov's personal page at the Echo of Moscow website (in Russian)
• Alexei Venediktov at the Russian Academy of Radio (RAR) website (in Russian)