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Yuri Kovalchuk seen at a meeting of President Dmitry Medvedev with Russian and foreign shareholders of the National Media Group in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Marina Ovsyannikova interrupted Mondays evening news on Russian TVs Channel One when she appeared behind the on-air anchor holding a sign that read NO WAR, and Dont believe the propaganda. They lie to you here. Authorities whisked away the news producer and detained her for over 12 hours. She was hit with a fine and, according to Russian state media, is now under investigation for spreading false information. I wanted to show the world that the majority of Russians are against the war in Ukraine, Ovsyannikova told CNN. If convicted under Russias new law that prohibits expression deviating from government-approved truth, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looms like a dark shadow over the broader Soviet-like crackdown on accurate information that, for example, prohibits the word war from being used by Russian media. (Its called a special military operation whose goal is to rid Ukraine of Nazis.) Putins general in the disinformation war is Yuri Kovalchuk, the 70-year-old oligarch described by the U.S. government as Putins close advisor and personal banker in 2014 U.S. sanctions against him. The two men have been almost inseparable in the last couple of years, according to one Kremlin watcher. Kovalchuk, through his holding company National Media Group, has a grip on what news Russians see and hear. He owns stakes in Channel One and several of Russias most influential TV channels. In December, his company acquired a piece of VK, Russias largest social media company.

Kovalchuk and Putin are tight. They own homes in the same exclusive Ozero dacha cooperative and Kovalchuk hosted the wedding of Putins daughter in 2013, according to the Panama Papers. In the last two years, Kovalchuk has established himself as the de facto second man in Russia, the most influential among the presidents entourage, according to Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, author of a book on Putins inner circle.

When people say Russian state television, they really mean Kovalchuk television, says Anders slund, an expert on Russias oligarchy. Putin doesnt trust the state sufficiently. He wants his closest man to control television.

Kovalchuk, who Forbes estimates is worth $1.3 billion, created National Media Group in 2008 in partnership with another oligarch, Alexei Mordashov. Alina Kabaeva, widely considered Putins girlfriend, is the companys chair. In addition to Channel One, National Media Group controls popular Russian television channels 5TV, REN-TV (formerly an opposition network to Putin) and entertainment channel CTC, as well as stakes in newspapers, digital media and content studios.

The National Media Group is one of the two biggest players in the Russian media market along with state-owned VGTRK, says Ilya Yablokov, a journalism professor at the University of Sheffield in England.

The National Media Group and Kovalchuk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, media coverage on Russian TV networks have echoed themes in Putins speeches. This week, pundits and anchors have pushed conspiracy theories about Ukraine developing biological weapons with U.S. support. Ukraine and the Biden administration have denied those charges.

Kovalchuk is known for his anti-liberal and anti-Western views and his conspiracy thinking, says Tatiana Stanovaya, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center and founder of newsite R.Politik. People like Kovalchuk understand Putins priorities and goals, she said. They can feel it, and try to adapt media policy to such needs.

In December 2021, Kovalchuks National Media Group acquired a controlling stake in Russian social media giant VK from oligarch Alisher Usmanov. Following the ownership change, VK fired much of its existing management and promoted Kovalchuk relatives, according to independent Russian news site The Bell. Today, VK is being used by the Kremlin to recruit mercenaries for Russias war on Ukraine, the BBC reported.

VK is playing an enormously influential role in keeping the population under control, spreading the narratives that are favorable to the Kremlin and punishing those who use the social network for spreading alternative views, says Yablokov, the journalism professor. VK is now as open as it could be to Russian domestic intelligence services.

Kovalchuk and Putin became close in St. Petersburg during the 1990s, when Kovalchuks Rossiya Bank supported Putins political rise. Then, as now, Kovalchuk operated behind the scenes. David Lingelbach, a professor at the University of Baltimore, worked in Russia during the 1990s in banking and venture capital. On several occasions, Lingelbach met with Putin in his capacity as first deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to facilitate investments from foreign investors. I met most of the other people that Putin brought into his inner circle Igor Sechin, Dimitri Medvedev, Alexey Miller but I never once saw or had any awareness of Kovalchuk, Lingelbach says. In hindsight, Putin was leading a second sort of private economic life, which he was developing with Kovalchuk.

Once Putin was elected president in 2000, Kovalchuk used Rossiya Bank to build his media empire, powered by Putins relentless drive to kill negative press. In 2000, Putin arrested media baron Vladimir Gusinsky on charges of fraud and forced him to sell his media properties, including his crown jewel REN-TV, to state-owned Gazprom. (Gusinsky, who denied all charges, has since disappeared from public view; the European Court of Human Rights declared in 2004 that accusations against Gusinsky were politically motivated.) Putin then arranged for Gazprom to sell those media assets, as well as its insurance business Sogaz and other financial assets, to Rossiya Bank at a bargain price.

These transactions were part of a larger transfer of wealth taking place during the 2000s, from oligarchs and the Russian state into the pockets of Putin and his cronies. Over $60 billion worth of state-owned assets were funneled through Gazprom to Kovalchuks Rossiya Bank and entities owned by other Putin allies, the Rotenberg brothers and Gennady Timchenko, between 2004 and the end of 2007, according to a 2008 investigation by Russian opposition figures Vladimir Milov and Boris Nemtsov. (Nemtsov was shot to death on a Moscow bridge in 2015.)

In Putins initial term, the discussion was that all non-core assets of monopolies including Gazprom should go to open markets to create a competitive environment, Vladimir Milov, who has since left Russia, told Forbes. However, Putin completely turned that path around and transferred these assets to his cronies. Gazprom received nothing, the taxpayers received nothing, and instead of reform we shifted towards establishing a system of control under a handful of Putins cronies.

As Russias unprovoked war on Ukraine continues, Kovalchuks importance is primed to grow. Oligarchs with assets in Europe and the U.S. are reeling under Western sanctions, and Putin is reportedly closing ranks, purging some of his top spies and military officials in response to Russias faltering war effort.

Kovalchuk is someone with whom Putin can really share his life, his visions, Stanovaya says. And he trusts him.

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Meet The Man Who Whispers In Putin's Ear - Forbes

Cochranes Instagram posts have been removed, their Instagram account has been shadow banned, and now a Cochrane Library Twitter post about winning a prestigious award for trustworthy information has been tagged as misleading. These incidents highlight the realities of Cochranes call against misinformation while protecting trusted sources.

Cochranes health evidence syntheses are recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information. Cochrane Library reviews are used to support global and national health guidelines and policy. We advocate for evidence-informed healthcare and make our trusted evidence accessible and available to all. One way we do this is using social media to reach different audiences.

This week the prestigious Harding Prize for Useful and Trustworthy Communication was jointly awarded to by the ONS Covid Infection Survey and the Cochrane Review of Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. The Harding Prize, run in association with Sense About Science and the Science Media Centre, and is supported by Sir David Harding, goal is to draw attention to the unsung task of 'informing and not persuading' and celebrate those who were doing it well.

The Harding Prize judges noted that the Cochrane Infectious Disease Groups review of the evidence for the use of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 used clear language, communicated straightforwardly, and with balance that that there was no benefit to hydroxychloroquine which outweighed the side effects and that trials of it should be stopped. This review was done with rigorous methodology and communicated with clarity and directness, which enabled policy makers, journalists, and the public to discuss and make decisions based on the best evidence.

It was particularly ironic that a celebratory tweet from the Cochrane Library about winning an award for useful and trustworthy communication was tagged by Twitter for being misleading. This tag does not allow it to be replied to, shared, or liked.

Social media platforms are starting to act on mis/disinformation by tagging posts that are deemed misleading and penalizing repeat offenders, says Sylvia de Haan, Cochranes Head of Advocacy, Communications and Partnerships. Its likely our misleading tag from Twitter was due to the hydroxychloroquine hashtag. However, misleading posts are still using this hashtag without restrictions, while a post from the Cochrane Library, a leader in health evidence synthesis, is blocked. This incident, like other recent examples, illustrates how the system is imperfect. It underscores the urgent need to not only guard against misinformation on social media but have better mechanisms to protect trusted information.

This latest social media blunder comes after the recent launch of the Cochrane Convenes Report which highlights the parallel challenges of generating trust in evidence and countering mis/disinformation and calls for concrete action to address these issues, says Cochranes Editor in Chief, Dr Karla Soares-Weiser. There is an ongoing issue with how you hold those deliberately creating and sharing mis/disinformation to account and how you form accreditation and approval for official sources of evidence that have met certain quality control standards. We need to make it easier for people to access trustworthy information and that includes on social media.

Cochrane is a proud supporter of WHOs call to action on infodemic management and is currently collaborating with science communicators at Lifeology and the Association for Healthcare Social Media. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this recurrent issue with social media platforms directly and to work with others interested in supporting science communication.Write to us at cochrane@cochrane.org, and consider signing our call to action on trusted evidence for all in health emergencies.

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While guarding against misinformation on social media, mechanisms are not protecting trusted information - Cochrane

"Due to the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and also other exigencies of work, there was a delay in pronouncing judgment," said justice BP Colabawala before quashing and setting aside an arbitral award which upheld rescission of media rights by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to World Sport Group (India) Pvt. Ltd. in relation to the Indian Premier League (IPL) for all territories other than Indian sub-continent.

Justice Colabawala had extensively heard the issue in 2021 and reserved it on 18 March 2021. The entire issue pertained to a tender issued by BCCI in 2007 for a period of 10 years starting from 2008 to 2017 regarding media rights for IPL. WSGI was the successful tenderor which was awarded the global media rights of IPL for approximately one billion USD.

Since WSGI was not a broadcaster but only a trader in Media Rights, it entered into pre-bid negotiations with MSM which had a broadcasting network in India.

During these negotiations, MSM, for its own commercial reasons, instead of entering into a sub-licensing Agreement with WSGI, desired to enter into a direct Media Rights License Agreement [MRLA] with BCCI for India rights till 2012 for USD 275.40 Million. Another MRLA was executed between BCCI and WSGI for India rights for a sum of $550 million and a 'rest of world' rights for $92 million till 2017.

However, after the first IPL happened to be a resounding success, on March 14 2009, BCCI terminated MRLA with MSM after which the India rights of IPL were reverted back to BCCI. The Board wanted to re-auction/re-sell the India Rights for the IPL for the entire period of 2009-2017 for a higher License Fee.

In light of this, BCCI at the outset entered into a Deed of Mutually Agreed Termination (DMAT) with WSGI in 2009. With this agreement, the composite MRLAs entered into by BCCI with WSGI came to be terminated. According to WSGI, it agreed to a mutual termination of the first MRLA only to enable BCCI to receive an enhanced License Fee for the India Rights for the period 2009-2017 on the condition that the India Rights for the period 2009-2017 would be licensed to WSGI, or its nominee - WSGM, thereby enabling WSGI to realize a premium for relinquishment of its India Rights for the period 2013-2017. The other condition that was laid down was that BCCI would reinstate WSGI's RoW Rights for the period 2009-2017 by entering into a fresh MRLA with WSGI on the same terms and conditions as was recorded in the first BCCI-WSGI MRLA.

BCCI later alleged that all agreements of 2009 including the DMAT formed part of a fraudulent composite transaction which gave them the right to terminate the second MRLA with WSGI. BCCI alleged that all the agreements were executed only for the purpose of diverting funds to WSGM, a sister concern with WSGI, which showed that both companies were complicit. The fraud alleged by BCCI was that the monies under the facilitation deed were actually due to BCCI and since WSGI companies had indulged in fraud, BCCI was entitled to rescind the MRLA for RoW rights.

The rescission was challenged by WSGI in arbitration. Out of the 3-members on the tribunal, 2 members upheld the decision of BCCI to rescind the agreement.

This majority award was challenged in High Court by WSGI. WSGI contended that by virtue of the Agreements entered into in 2009, BCCI benefited to the tune of approximately ?1791 crores. Failing to consider this enormous benefit that inured to BCCI and the fact that BCCI retained the same, was a fundamental error on the arbitral tribunal, WSGI submitted.

Justice BP Colabawalla accepted the submission and opined that the benefit which BCCI received by virtue of the agreements ought to have been considered. "It is trite law that a party cannot be permitted to approbate and reprobate at the same time. A party cannot be permitted to blow hot and cold, fast and loose or approbate and reprobate. When one party knowingly accepts the benefits of a contract, it is estopped by denying the validity and binding effect of that contract on him. Once a party takes advantage of any instrument, he must accept all that is mentioned in the said document," the Court emphasized.

Justice Colabawalla observed that failing to consider this fundamental issue which goes to the root of the matter, rendered the arbitral award susceptible to challenge as it clearly suffers from a patent illegality and is therefore liable to be set aside on this ground alone.

Justice Colabawala also noted that the majority award failed to explain why BCCI was entitled to the facilitation fee. He also deduced after perusing the minority award that huge chunks of important evidence was missed out in the majority award. "Such an Award with the greatest of respect to the arbitrators who passed the majority award, cannot be allowed to stand," said Justice Colabawala.

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Bombay High Court rules against BCCI in the IPL media rights issue - India Today

Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called urgently for meaningful and fair peace talks over Russias invasion amid further attacks, including a claim by Moscow that it had used a hypersonic missile for the first time, hitting a depot in the west of the country.

In a video address early on Saturday, Zelenskiy said: Its time to meet. Time to talk. It is time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise Russias losses will be so huge that several generations will not be enough to rebound.

The war must end, he added. Ukraines proposals are on the table.

As the war entered its 24th day, Polands prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, proposed a total ban on EU trade with Russia, and there was hope of some relief for stricken civilians as Ukrainian authorities said 10 humanitarian corridors had been agreed.

A corridor was said to have been agreed with Russia for the besieged city of Mariupol, although the authorities previous efforts to evacuate civilians there under a temporary ceasefire have mostly failed, with both sides blaming each other. Several corridors were also said to have been agreed in Kyiv and in the self-proclaimed republic in Luhansk.

However, aid agencies were still being prevented from reaching people trapped in Ukrainian cities surrounded by Russian forces, the UNs World Food Programme warned.

Hours after Zelenskiys call for talks, Russia said it had used a hypersonic weapon for the first time, destroying an underground military depot in western Ukraine. Hypersonic missiles are fast enough that they can evade detection by missile defence systems.

Russias defence ministry said on Saturday it had destroyed a large underground depot for missiles and aircraft ammunition in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, state media reported.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin claimed in a call with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, that Kyiv was attempting to stall peace talks but that Moscow was still keen to continue negotiations.

In the south, at least 40 Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed after a Russian air strike on an army barracks in the city of Mykolaiv, according to local media reports.

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevich, said on Facebook on Friday that several villages in the region had been occupied and the city had been under heavy fire, calling it a difficult day.

Fighting continues in the key port city of Mariupol, with Ukraines defence ministry saying late on Friday it had temporarily lost access to the Sea of Azov, which connects to the Black Sea and would be a major loss for Ukraine.

Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of creating a humanitarian catastrophe there by deliberately blocking supplies from reaching the city in a bid to force residents to comply with their attackers. Calling the move a war crime, the president said Russian soldiers would face a one-way compulsory ticket to The Hague, where the international criminal court sits.

More than 350,000 civilians have been stranded with little food or water in Mariupol, which was under constant bombardment on Friday. Russia said its forces were tightening the noose around the city, where an estimated 80% of the citys homes have been damaged.

About 9,000 people have managed to flee Mariupol, while work continues to reach the hundreds of civilians believed to be trapped in a shelter under the citys theatre, which was destroyed by Russian bombing on Wednesday. About 130 people have been rescued from the rubble, some seriously injured. There is no word yet on a death toll.

Zelenskiy said the advance of Russian forces had ground to a halt across Ukraine, a view echoed by western intelligence agencies. The continued targeting of civilians in Mariupol was said by the British military to be a sign of Russias failures in the first three weeks of the war.

Lt Gen Jim Hockenhull, the chief of defence intelligence, said: The Kremlin has so far failed to achieve its original objectives. It has been surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance, and has been bedevilled with problems of its own making.

Russian operations have changed. Russia is now pursuing a strategy of attrition. This will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower. This will result in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis.

Putin has reinforced his control over Russian domestic media. The Kremlin is attempting to control the narrative, hide operational problems and obscure high Russian casualty numbers from the Russian people.

In other developments:

Zelenskiy said he would continue to appeal to world leaders to call for peace in Ukraine, with plans to address Switzerland, Italy, Israel and Japan. He has spoken with Ukrainian ambassadors around the world to intensify the supply of humanitarian goods for displaced people in Ukraine.

Joe Biden in a two-hour call with Chinas Xi Jinping described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians, the White House said, without giving further details. The Chinese account of the conversation reported by the state news agency, Xinhua, said it was candid and in-depth.

The UN has reported 816 confirmed civilian deaths. Kyiv officials said 222 people had been killed in the capital, including 60 civilians and four children. It said more than 3.2 million people had fled, with 2 million displaced inside the country.

Putin has praised national unity during a rare public speech at a rally in a Moscow stadium to mark the eighth anniversary of Russias annexation of Crimea. The country hasnt seen unity like this in a long time, Putin said, addressing a large flag-waving crowd on Friday from a stage decked out with slogans such as: For a world without Nazism and For our president. Moscow police said more than 200,000 people were in and around the Luzhniki Stadium. Zelenskiy referred to the rally in his own address, urging viewers to imagine the stadium filled with Russias 14,000 war dead and tens of thousands more injured.

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Ukraines Zelenskiy calls for urgent peace talks and warns of Mariupol catastrophe - The Guardian

Kiril Petkov is not a typical Bulgarian prime minister. The 41-year-old probiotics entrepreneur and Harvard Business School graduate is a political newcomer. He could not be more different to Boyko Borissov, the burly former bodyguard who dominated Bulgarian politics for 12 years, until he resigned last year after months-long street protests against corruption.

After three general elections in eight months, Petkovs newly created We Continue the Change party swept to power at the head of a four-party coalition, vowing to tackle Bulgarias most pernicious problem: corruption.

Speaking to the Observer, Petkov said he wanted to eradicate corruption during his four-year term in office. I dont say decreasing corruption, I say full eradication, he said, adding that he hoped Bulgaria would be a textbook case of how corruption can be eliminated in a short time. And I dont think its so hard. Bulgaria has 6.5 million people its not such a huge country so what looks like an insurmountable task for a very large country, I dont think its the case for Bulgaria.

He was speaking before police detained Borissov and reportedly searched his home on Thursday after the fledgling European public prosecutors office announced it had opened 120 investigations into fraud involving EU funds in the country. Officials did not elaborate on the accusations against Borissov, who has faced allegations of corruption in the past and always denied wrongdoing.

The decision by Bulgarias chief prosecutor, Ivan Geshev, to release Borissov from custody without charge after saying he found procedural flaws, and that the former prime minister could not be detained further due to lack of evidence, prompted sharp criticism from the government.

We are faced with just the next sabotage on the part of the prosecution headed by Ivan Geshev, Petkov said.

Speaking before Borissovs arrest, Petkov differentiated himself from his predecessor. Borissov, he said, had to make deals with the oligarchy system to maintain power. By contrast, there had been huge hygiene about who could join the party he co-founded with fellow Harvard graduate Assen Vassilev, now the finance minister. We are independent, we are starting clean, we are depending on nobody.

Sitting at the EU table, Bulgaria will be championing democratic standards, he said. You will see Bulgaria from now on speaking about the rule of law as a really strong proponent. The first thing is you should look at yourself and make sure you do your own work before pointing fingers.

He questioned why it was Washington, rather than Sofia, that put sanctions on the Bulgarian oligarch, media mogul and political kingmaker, Delyan Peevski, who is alleged to have controlled Borissov from behind the scenes.

The US described him as someone who has regularly engaged in corruption, using influence peddling and bribes to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society.

Petkov said: I think we should be raising our eyebrows why somebody from 8,000km away could see more clearly significant acts of corruption. He located the blame in Sofia: First we have to look at why the prosecution in Bulgaria closed their eyes to this.

Petkov wants Geshev to resign, although he has no power to make this happen. Last month, the prime minister handed Geshev a list of 19 individuals linked in media reports to high-level corruption and told prosecutors to do their job.

Louisa Slavkova, director of the Sofia Platform, which promotes democracy, describes Petkovs decision to hand over names as unprecedented. They [the government] have the capacity to focus on the toxic triangle between business, politics and media, she said.

Daniel Smilov, at the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, said Petkov and his party had the potential to turn the corner to make Bulgaria a country that is not systemically referred to as the most corrupt country in the EU.

The problem for Petkov is that his original agenda has been overtaken by all sorts of crises. Galloping inflation, lingering Covid Bulgaria has the lowest EU vaccination rate as well as war in Europe. Bulgaria does not share a land border with Ukraine but cannot avoid the ripple effects of the conflict in its neighbourhood. The war is a fraught issue for the coalition, as some members have been historically pro-Russia, although all have condemned the invasion. What unites them is their stance against the corrupt acts of the previous government, but when it comes to some of the other issues, there are tensions, to put it mildly, Smilov said.

Earlier this month Bulgarias defence minister, Stefan Yanev, was sacked after refusing to describe the Russian invasion as a war.

Bulgaria has backed EU sanctions against Russia so far but opposes a ban on Russian oil and gas imports, a position also supported by Germany and Hungary. We are the most dependent of the EU nations [on] Russian gas. Sometimes we are 100% dependent, which is staggering, Petkov said. He hopes to see a gas interconnector and long-delayed 182km pipeline connecting Bulgaria to Greece completed by the summer, bringing cheaper gas from Azerbaijan and breaking Russias monopoly.

While Bulgaria supports humanitarian aid and champions Ukraines EU membership prospects, it has ruled out sending weapons.

Despite Petkovs pro-EU credentials, Slavkova contends there is still ambiguity in the coalitions communication about Bulgarias alliances, especially in the context of a media space that didnt take seriously the disinformation attempts by Russia for many years.

She thinks Bulgaria is at a turning point comparable to the late 1990s when, after a decade of instability after the fall of the Berlin wall, the country chose a westward path. It feels like a historical moment for a country like Bulgaria, it feels like we are at a point when we almost have to decide anew that we are part of Nato and the European Union.

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I will free Bulgaria from corruption: Kiril Petkov speaks out - The Guardian