(, , The Businessman or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily was 120,000–130,000.

It is widely considered to be one of Russia's three main business dailies (together with Vedomosti and RBK Daily).

History

The original Kommersant newspaper was established in Moscow in 1909, but was shut down by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution in 1917.

In 1989, with the onset of press freedom in Russia, was relaunched under the ownership of businessman and publicist Vladimir Yakovlev. The first issue was released in January 1990. It was modeled after Western business journalism. In September 2006, it was sold to Alisher Usmanov. In 2008, BBC News named one of Russia's leading liberal business broadsheets.

It has been argued that Kommersant strategically uses an ironic tone in its reporting, expressed in "creative neologisms, wordplay, metaphors, and legally imposed euphemisms", allowing it to maintain a degree of independence in periods of severe state censorship.

References

  • BBC news reporting on Kommersant's protest
  • Photo gallery celebrating Kommersant's 15th anniversary
  • Story in the St. Petersburg Times about the sale of Kommersant (archived)
  • "Kommersant" (1909–1917) digital archives in "Newspapers on the web and beyond", the digital resource of the National Library of Russia