Vladimir Gusinsky

Vladimir Gusinsky was born in 1952 in Moscow

Gusinsky was born into a Jewish family in Moscow in 1952. In 1969 he enrolled at the Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas, but he did not finish his studies there.

In 1973 he joined the Soviet Army as a junior sergeant in the chemical intelligence troops. After his discharge he enrolled in 1975 at the state theater arts institute in Moscow and graduated in 1979.

In 1986 he was a stage director for the Goodwill Games and set up the cooperative Metal, which made metal goods and jewelry. In 1988 he founded a consulting cooperative for foreign firms, and in 1989 a joint venture with APCO and a private retail bank. In 1992 he placed his 42 companies in one holding company.

In 1993 he founded the daily newspaper Sevodnya and, with several journalists, NTV, the first private television channel in Russia. In December 1994 the presidential security service was ordered to attack his offices, and he left Russia with his family until May 1995. In 1996 he helped found the Russian Jewish Congress and became its president.

In 1997 he moved his media assets into a new holding company and became its president. In 2000 he was elected vice president of the World Jewish Congress. In June 2000 prosecutors opened an investigation against him, and on 13 June he was arrested in Moscow and held in Butyrka Prison.