Leading Russian paper sold to steel firm.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

The following is an excerpt from report by Russian external TV service NTV Mir, a write-up of report by Russian Ekho Moskvy radio and a write-up of reports by Russian news agency Interfax on 30 August; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

[Presenter Olga Belova] It became known literally several minutes ago that the Kommersant publishing house had been sold to the head of the Metalloinvest holding company, Alisher Usmanov. The director-general of the publishing house, Demyan Kudryavtsev, has already confirmed that the country's best publication - in the eyes of many - indeed changed its owner. According to Kudryavtsev, I quote, not all the details of the deal have been finalized yet, but one can talk about it as a fait accompli.

The owner of the publishing house, entrepreneur Badri Patarkatsishvili, has reported that - and this is another quote - that this is absolutely pure business and that there is no political subtext here.

Our correspondent Boris Koltsov is now on a live link with us. He is outside the office of the Metalloinvest company which bought Kommersant. And a few minutes ago, our correspondent managed to talk to the director-general of the Kommersant publishing house, Demyan Kudryavtsev. And so, Boris, over to you. We are listening to you. …