vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #149 / Business / Reading article...

Vladimir Shkrabov says his paper owns the building at 10 Krasnovo Znameni. The krai insists the state is the owner. Thus two landlords claim the publishing heart of the city.

On Aug. 18, employees of the Zolotoi Rog newspaper were changing the locks on a door in the Dalpress building – a complex of newspaper and business offices – when Vladimir Shkrabov burst in.

Shkrabov, editor of the Krasnoye Znamya, demanded that they vacate the space, which he said his paper owned. Staff from Zolotoi Rog, a business biweekly, refused.

The two sides disagree over whether Shkrabov shoved Zolotoi Rog employees (he denies using force). But Zolotoi Rog complained to the police. When Shkrabov later entered the office, Zolotoi Rog nailed the door shut. And, according to Zolotoi Rog Editor Yelena Barkova, he broke down the door again.

It was only the latest clash between Shkrabov and the Zolotoi Rog. For two years, he has had an ongoing dispute with the paper. In 1995, Zolotoi Rog staff said, he broke down their door with an ax and severed phone lines and computer cables. (Shkrabov replies that this is a lie; the newspaper doesn’t own an ax, he said.)

But this is not simply a clash between two papers. Shkrabov is engaged in a fight to prove that his former Communist Party newspaper — and not the state, to whom Zolotoi Rog pays its rent – owns the building. The government seized the building and other Party property around Russia after the aborted putsch against Gorbachev in 1991. And therein lies the conflict. The building – the publishing heart of the city, home to newspapers and wire services – is claimed by two owners.

Dalpress, a printing company, manages the property on behalf of the government. Yet Shkrabov continues let out offices to businesses. (Vladivostok News has offices in the building, and its parent paper, the Russian-language daily Vladivostok, pays rent to Dalpress.) The result has been a legal battle that has dragged on for years. And the conflict suggests something of the confused state of property ownership left in the wake of the Soviet Union.

“This is the mud of privatization,” said Zolotoi Rog editor Yelena Barkova.

Shkrabov sees it in different terms. Dalpress gave the room in question to Zolotoi Rog, even though his accountants were using it, he said. He is caught up, he believes, in a larger battle with the krai government itself.

“The krai authorities gave the building to Dalpress behind our back,” he said. “And Dalpress in its turn is trying to get us out.”

Shkrabov is a plain-spoken, wiry man who sits at a desk in front of a red flag decorated with Lenin’s profile. He says his paper isn’t Communist, though a Soviet medal decorates the masthead.

Founded in 1917, Krasnoye Znamya grew to be the largest newspaper in Primorye, with 300,000 readers. Its offices filled much of the building at 10 Krasnovo Znameni. Shkrabov’s editorial policy followed the party line, but he refused to kowtow to party functionaries, says one ex-employee. Unlike the previous editor, Shkrabov did not leap to his feet and stand at attention in the office when the Primorye Communist Party secretary phoned.

He hasn’t hesitated to defend his paper. Once in 1992 Shkrabov refused to run an ad for a beauty pageant, and the would-be advertiser threw an ashtray at Shkrabov, the editor says. Shkrabov responded by hitting his attacker. (Shkrabov says they are now on friendly terms.)

With the decline of communism, a rollicking free press emerged in Vladivostok. Nine other papers sprang up in town, and the Krasnoye Znamya’s subscription shrank to 11,000. As staff deserted the old party paper, Shkrabov resorted to yelling “Traitor!” at those who resigned, the former employee said. Krasnoye Znamya now occupies a few rooms in a building filled with newspaper and news service offices. Though Zolotoi Rog is owned by employees and another company, it was founded, ironically, by Krasnoye Znamya.

What the Krasnoye Znamya does have is a printing press, and with it Shkrabov prints several regional papers and Primorye – a broadsheet published by Vladivostok Mayor Victor Cherepkov which is largely devoted to attacks on Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko. Because of this, he said, the krai government is using Zolotoi Rog as a wedge to force him out of the building. “When we installed the printing press on our own, a new crackdown occurred,” Shkrabov said.

Fyodor Andrienko, a department chief at the krai press center, dismissed the suggestion that Gov. Nazdratenko was pressuring Shkrabov. Andrienko said Shkrabov must have been feeling unwell when he made his remarks. “Otherwise we can’t explain such a statement,” he added.

Zolotoi Rog editor Yelena Barkova said there is another reason for her conflict with Shkrabov. When they worked for the same publication, she said she asked the owners to replace Shkrabov.

Tamara Akulibaba, head of the judicial department at the Krai Property Management Committee, said Shkrabov is hanging onto the building because he wants the rent money, which he never spends on upkeep in the building. Shkrabov says this is untrue. Rather than collect rent, he said, Krasnoye Znamya barters. For example, one tenant distributes the paper for free in exchange for its office space.

“We don’t charge people,” Shkrabov said. “We make collaboration agreements.”

Irina Kirgilova, attorney for Dalpress, said courts have given Shkrabov until Sept. 18 to clear out of the building. But Shkrabov may appeal, and the matter could be tied up in courts for years, said Tatyana Loktionova, chairwoman of the Krai Arbitration Court. In the meanwhile, the situation is unresolved. On the floor of Zolotoi Rog’s office, in front of a secretary’s desk, lies a steel door. The paper intends to have it installed for protection against Shkrabov.

Shkrabov, however, insists that Krasnoye Znamya is the paper that is threatened. “To kill a paper,” he said, “all you have to do is take the building away from it.”