Over the course of the three years of the war in Ukraine we have seen a wide range of sanctions adopted against Russia. Some worked; some had the opposite effect to that intended. But the case of the Russian business newspaper Kommersant is one of the oddest. It appears that US authorities actually meant to shield Kommersant, Russia’s leading newspaper, from sanctions. But things did not go as planned.

The harsh fate of fact-based journalism

Kommersant was founded in the final years of the Soviet Union during Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of “glasnost”, which lifted censorship in the media. After the Soviet collapse, the newspaper quickly established itself as a leading publication in Russia and is one of the country’s top three most-quoted business outlets today.

With the Kremlin’s takeover of Vedomosti, formerly a joint venture between the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Western-owned Independent Media, Kommersant has taken up the mantel of Russia’s most trusted paper. In a conversation with bne IntelliNews, the former editor-in-chief described it as a “staunch defender of old-school, fact-based journalism.” For more than three decades Kommersant has sought to present the world in an impartial and unvarnished light, rather than tailor its coverage to the political views of any single audience as numerous media in Russia, Europe and the US often do.

In a long interview in 2023, Vladimir Zhelonkin, then editor-in-chief of Kommersant, told bne IntelliNews there is no censorship or self-censorship at the newspaper. “Our duty as a media outlet is not to determine what can be said, but to be a platform for discussion,” Zhelonkin said.

You won’t find Kommersant publishing articles that tell its readers why something is good or bad. Instead, you will read about the state of the economy, and it has reported the good results, like the strong growth of recent years, as well as the bad news, like the all-time record budget deficits in January 2023.

The newspaper doesn’t impose its own point of view, Zhelonkin says, but chooses to present a wide range of opinions instead. One day, you might read a controversial op-ed by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, known for his radical statements, and the next, a straightforward interview with Lynne Tracy following her appointment as US Ambassador to Russia – the first interview she gave to the Russian press. It has also been the only Russian-based newspaper whose correspondent has interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy since the start of war three years ago.

Front page of Kommersant newspaper with an interview with US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy

“Journalists must not be at either end of the spectrum. We must be unbiased and leave the readers to choose their own ideas and options. We represent all the actors and the opinions of public figures and other players. The reader must make up his or her own mind,” Zhelonkin explained.

For the newspaper, a lack of political affiliation comes with its own problems – Kommersant receives criticism from both right and left. For example, Medvedev’s piece was condemned by liberals, Ukrainians and Europeans, while the interview with US Ambassador Tracy met with a major backlash from Russia’s Foreign Ministry, which has accused Kommersant of publishing “fake news” when some report irks it. Zhelonkin said he never took a piece down once published or altered it unless it was factually incorrect.

Refusing to align with any ideological camp has also had tangible consequences for Kommersant. Imagine the uproar if The New York Times were suddenly cut off from Google’s services without explanation? The reaction would likely resemble the current outcry after Elon Musk cut off USAID funding for a raft of media. But when Kommersant got into trouble, no one stepped forward, from either inside or outside Russia, to defend it.

On the brink of sanctions

The first sign of trouble came in March 2022 when Kommersant's long-time owner, Uzbek-born billionaire Alisher Usmanov, was hit by US sanctions. At the time, OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control) imposed personal sanctions on Usmanov but issued General Licence No. 15, granting sanctions immunity to all companies in which he held a 50% or greater stake, including Kommersant. As a result the newspaper continued to operate as usual.

The Department of the Treasury. Photo by Shutterstock/DCStockPhotography

Everything changed a year later when OFAC revised its sanctions regime against Usmanov. While the initial measures targeted the magnate personally, the new restrictions extended to businesses linked to him. Some of these companies were sanctioned directly, and General Licence No. 15, which had protected the legal entities in which Usmanov held a stake, including Kommersant, was revoked.

At the same time, Kommersant itself was not put on the sanctions list. In fact, in an effort to shield the newspaper, which the US Treasury Department officials described as “one of Russia’s most independent remaining publishing companies,” a new General Licence No. 64 was issued specifically for Kommersant. The problem, however, lay in the vague wording of the new document.

General License No. 64 issued for Kommersant

The new licence permitted Kommersant to carry out transactions that are “ordinarily incident and necessary to the operations of the newspaper.” Yet, due to uncertainties over what exactly fell within this scope, nearly all of Kommersant’s international partners opted to sever their ties with the media outlet.

As a result, Kommersant has lost access to essential tools used by major media outlets. For instance, Bloomberg temporarily suspended Kommersant’s access to its services – a major blow for a newspaper that leads Russia’s global business coverage.

“The sanctions against our shareholder [...] make it difficult to directly access foreign sources for comment, participate in international events, or to obtain subscriptions from partners such as Reuters and Bloomberg. All these relationships are now suspended,” Zhelonkin said.

Closed window to the Internet

Boxed in by sanctions, the newspaper has lost much of its global readership after platforms like Google and Apple cut off Kommersant’s access to their services. According to sources at Kommersant who spoke to bne IntelliNews, these companies provided no direct reason for their decision beyond citing concerns over the vague wording of US regulations.

The most damaging blow came from the disconnection of Google Discover services, which accounted for nearly 40% of Kommersant’s daily referrals. “Discover is an extremely important source of traffic – for many people, it’s their window to the internet,” Kirill Urban, the paper’s digital director at the time, told Bloomberg. “But there’s been no contact with Google. No appeal is possible.”

The Bloomberg Terminal is an indispensable tool for any media outlet involved in covering the world's news. Photo by Shikha Shrestha

The newspaper has been defending its reputation and that of its journalists without resorting to lengthy litigation. For instance, in September 2024, when an influential Russian pro-war Telegram channel penned a Soviet-style denunciation against a Kommersant journalist, accusing her of working with British intelligence and “foreign agents”, editor-in-chief Mikhail Lukin immediately intervened, saying the newspaper intends to protect the good name and professional dignity of its employee. As a result, the attacks ceased.

However, it remains entirely unclear what Kommersant can do to defend itself from the vagaries of major tech companies: while senior US officials are happy to give interviews to the newspaper, Google, fearing sanctions, removes these articles from its news service.

The United States claims that it defends freedom of speech and is against curbing these liberties elsewhere. And an unbiased free media plays a key role: the so-called fourth estate. Muzzling one of Russia’s most objective sources of information actively undermines that process.

Perhaps it’s time for OFAC, which initially tried to shield Kommersant because it played exactly this role, to clarify the wording of its licence that would allow the newspaper to operate as normal and continue to provide its Russian-speaking readers the unvarnished facts and information so they can make up their own minds on the issues of the day.