A group of popular singers and producers in Russia has appealed to President Vladimir Putin to stop an ownership struggle that could turn a major radio company into a state-owned patriotic music holding.

In a letter quoted by the Kommersant newspaper, music industry heavyweights asked Putin to stop a deal by the state company Goskontsert to buy Russkaya Media Group, arguing it could make it impossible for “most representatives of the music industry” to work with the group’s radio stations and television channels. Russkaya Media Group owns several well-known radio stations including Russkoye Radio, Hit FM, Maximum and Monte Carlo, as well as the television channel RU.TV.

Producer Vladimir Kiselyov, a business partner of Goskontsert’s director, has reportedly been conducting negotiations to buy Russkaya Media Group for several months. An acquaintance of Putin from St Petersburg, Kiselyov previously was involved in organising a controversial 2010 event, allegedly for charity, at which Putin sang Fats Domino’s Blueberry Hill for a star-studded audience including Gérard Depardieu, Kevin Costner and Monica Belluci.

In October, Kiselyov and Olga Plaksina, chairwoman of the board of directors of Russkaya Media Group, wrote a letter to Putin suggesting Goskontsert head a project to develop “ideologically correct” pop idols, with the goal of ensuring popular support for Russia’s leadership, Vedomosti newspaper reported this week.

Although the Kremlin controls all of Russia’s major news channels, it previously has not made overt attempts to do the same with the music industry. But the patriotic pop star project has apparently been going ahead. At the end of June, IFD Kapital, which owns 78% of Russkaya Media Group, announced it would sell the company, which was reportedly valued at more than $100m, to Goskontsert. Russkaya Media Group director Sergei Kozhevnikov, who owns 22% of the company, is examining legal methods to prevent the deal.

In July, deputy communications minister Alexei Volin told telecom and television operators about a “music holding with a patriotic direction” and asked them to carry several newly established patriotic music channels, according meeting documents.

Kiselyov told Kommersant that he wanted to “sort out” Russian radio, arguing that four of Russkaya Media Group’s stations play predominantly Western music. “We want them to play Russian artists,” he said.



But the letter signers argued that the Russian music industry was already patriotic enough, and singer Grigory Leps noted that the media group’s flagship Russkoye Radio had been founded as a station that would play only Russian-language songs. Popular singers have frequently performed at patriotic events, and several have played in annexed Crimea and in areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed rebels, despite the threat of sanctions, Kozhevnikov told Kommersant. “Can you really call them unpatriotic?” he asked.

Notably, many of those who signed the letter have spoken in support of Kremlin policy, such as opera soprano Anna Netrebko, who posed for a photograph late last year with a leader of the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine, holding a rebel flag.

Opera singer Anna Netrebko poses with Ukrainian separatist flag Read more

Leps, who was blacklisted by the United States for suspected mafia ties, has appeared at numerous events in support of Putin. The letter was also signed by the “Russian Sinatra” Iosif Kobzon, a ruling party MP who was sanctioned by the European Union after he performed for rebels in Donetsk.

Putin’s name was being used to intimidate Russkaya Media Group’s owners into selling, the letter said. “The potential buyers are attempting to seize the holding with the help of slander and administrative pressure on the shareholders and management of RMG,” it said.

Putin’s spokesman said the president could not make any decisions related to such a deal.

According to the most recent records available, Goskontsert reported millions of roubles in losses in 2013. Music industry insiders quoted by Vedomosti said state bank VTB and the finance ministry were considering funding its purchase of Russkaya Media Group.