MOSCOW (RIA Novosti commentator Vasily Kononenko) -- One of the leading and the most respectful newspapers in Russia, the Izvestia, whose history is approaching the 90th anniversary, has been sold.

The buyer is the Gazprom-Media holding, which currently owns controlling stakes in NTV, NTV plus, TNT television companies, a number of radio stations, including Echo Moskvy, and the Seven Days publishing house.

Gazprom-Media issued an official statement announcing the purchase of 50.19% of shares of the OAO Editorial Office of the Izvestia newspaper from the ZAO Prof-Media publishing house. The details of the deal have not been disclosed, although experts believe the purchase price might be in the range of $20-25 million. It is not much.

Immediately after the announcement of the purchase, the journalists and the editorial staff received compensation for two months of the delayed salary. As it happened, the salary debt pay off was part of the deal between the two media structures.

After the formal transfer ceremony between Prof-Media Director General Rafael Akopov and Gazprom-Media Director General Nikolai Senkevich, the new Izvestia CEO met with journalists at the Izvestia editorial office for the first time.

Speaking about the goal of the purchase, Senkevich stated, "We liked the newspaper and decided to buy it because Gazprom-Media deals with politicized media." Then he corrected himself by saying, "the quality media." In his turn, the representative of the previous owner, Rafael Akopov, explained the reason for the sale in the following way, "We, on the contrary, decided to explore the "tabloid" market because it is the most lucrative market."

In reality, it is hard to believe that the state-owned Gazprom purchased this asset only for the sake of business expansion. After all, the Izvestia is experiencing serious financial difficulties at present, which is quite understandable. In the last few months, a new team of talented journalists accomplished a lot. Today, the newspaper boasts argumentative analytical materials; the layout has changed; and the quality of the Moscow issue has improved. As a result, the rating of the newspaper improved significantly. Since April, it is printed in color. All these changes demanded heavy expenditures. At the same time, the improvements attracted serious advertisers, and in the future the Izvestia could have become a profitable publication.

In any case, for the buyer who is solely interested in profits, a political newspaper cannot be an attractive asset. Such is the current situation on the newspaper market. Therefore, it is foolish to consider the Gazprom purchase of Izvestia as an attempt to increase profits. Another explanation seems to be more plausible - the state monopoly with revenues amounting to billions of dollars simply continues to consolidate its power in the sphere of influential media with the sights set on the future, which includes the 2007 parliamentary elections and the 2008 presidential elections. So, the logic of the Izvestia deal definitely lies in the sphere of big politics.