Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) in Moldova
Komsomolskaya Pravda is a Russian daily tabloid that was founded in 1925. Its name references the official Soviet newspaper Pravda, meaning "Truth." The publication was established following a decision made at the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party and began as the official organ of the Komsomol, the youth wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In the 1990s, it expanded to several former Soviet republics, including Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, where it has been published since 1995.
The weekly edition in Moldova consists of 32 pages, most of which are taken from the Moscow edition. There are also four pages dedicated to Moldova—three in Russian and one in Romanian. Most articles on these pages are unsigned.
Over the years, Komsomolskaya Pravda in Moldova has had owners with pro-Russian, anti-European, and anti-NATO views. During the presidency of pro-Russian politician Igor Dodon, the newspaper was managed by a company controlled by socialist MPs from his party. In 2023, reports indicated that Komsomolskaya Pravda in Moldova came under the control of another pro-Russian politician, Ilan Shor, who, while based in Moscow in 2024, had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Moldova for financial fraud.
Materials published by Komsomolskaya Pravda in Moldova have frequently been debunked and found to be false or manipulative.
In 2023, the portal kp.md, which published articles from the print edition, was blocked at the request of the Information and Security Service, along with dozens of other websites, on the grounds that it "distorts the information space of the Republic of Moldova." Shortly thereafter, the KP team launched a clone site, where it continues to publish articles that distort the truth, contain generalizations and labels, fail to distinguish facts from opinions, and often lack the right to reply — violating journalistic ethics, according to the presscheck.md project, which has monitored several websites in Moldova.
Key Facts
| Audience Share | 982 thousand copies (2023) - weekly edition 269,7 thousand copies (2023) - daily |
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| Ownership Type | Private |
| Geographic Coverage | National |
| Content Type | Paid |
| Active Disguise | in addition to unavailability of true data, ownership is disguised, e. g. through bogus companies, etc. |
| Media Companies / Groups | Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP Editorial) |
Ownership
| Ownership Structure | KP in Moldova is published by "KP Editorial" SRL which has a single owner with a 100% share. The KP publication which is published in Russia is owned by the Joint Stock Company "KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA PUBLISHING HOUSE". The main shareholder is ЛДВ Пресс, ООО, 75% owned by Sergey Rudnov. |
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Media Companies / Groups
Facts
| Founding Year | 1995 1925 in Russia, 1995 - in Moldova |
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| Founder | Commercial Company "Komsomolskaia Pravda-Basarabia" LLC "Komsomolskaia Pravda-Basarabia" LLC, the commercial company that founded the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda în Moldova" in 1995, is currently in the process of liquidation. Public data indicate that the company changed ownership multiple times before its liquidation. Most recently, it was owned by "Exclusiv Media," which is associated with Corneliu Furculiță, a member of parliament from the pro-Russian Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM). At that time, "Exclusiv Media" was managed by another PSRM MP, Petru Burduja, a former college fellow of Galina Dodon, the wife of PSRM President Igor Dodon, who served as Moldova's president from 2016 to 2020. Galina Dodon worked as the financial director at Exclusiv Media. The publication originated in Russia as the official organ of the Komsomol, the youth wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), following a decision made at the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party in 1925. As of 2024, there is no official public data regarding the owners of Komsomolskaya Pravda in Russia. However, older documents and articles from Russian and international press suggest that the publication is owned by the Joint Stock Company "ИЗДАТЕЛЬСКИЙ ДОМ КОМСОМОЛЬСКАЯ ПРАВДА." The main shareholder is "ЛДВ Прессс," ООО, which is 75 percent owned by Sergey Rudnov. From 2023, the edition of KP Moldova is managed by the company "KP Editorial" |
| CEO | Zoia Ciuricova Zoia Ciuricova, the administrator and founder of "KP Editorial", which publishes the Moldovan edition of KP newspaper, previously appeared under the name Zoia Matveeva. She writes on her professional LinkedIn profile that she has been working as marketing manager at KP in Moldova since May 2006. Zoia Ciuricova has a surname similar to that of Sergei Ciuricov, the editor-in-chief of KP in Moldova for over 20 years. |
| Editor-In-Chief | Serghei Ciuricov Serghei Ciuricov (b. 1970) is a journalist by profession and editor-in-chief of "KP in Moldova" since the early 2000s. He graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at the State University of Moldova. He has remained editor-in-chief of "KP in Moldova" even though the owners of the publishing company have changed several times during this period. The publication "KP in Moldova" does not publish biographical information about Serghei Ciuricov. |
| Other Important People | Olesea Nosova Is the general director and chief editor of KP Russia. She started working at Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1994 as a correspondent. She then became special correspondent, deputy executive secretary, and in 2007 she was appointed editor-in-chief of kp.ru. Later she became deputy editor-in-chief, acting editor-in-chief, and since 2022 she has been the general director of KP. Throughout her career she has received several awards for the best press manager and editor. In 2019 she also received an award from the Russian Government for "creating the first multimedia edition". She is one of the presenters of the program about nutrition and health "Обман веществ" ("Substance cheating", Russian translation) in the project "Podcast.Lab" broadcast on the Russian state TV channel "Pervy Kanal". Yevgeny Sazonov Yevgeny Sazonov is the editor-in-chief of KP Russia. Born in 1976 in Liski, Voronezh region, he has been with KP since 2000. Initially a freelance photojournalist, he was promoted to journalist, deputy editor and then editor-in-chief at KP Voronezh. Before becoming editor-in-chief, he was deputy editor-in-chief of the kp.ru website. |
| Contact | KP în Moldova Chisinau, 5/4 Puskin Street 5/4 MD 2012 Moldova, Republic of kpeditorial@mail.ru 022 22 45 12 www.md.kp.media |
| Revenue | MDL 1.88 million / USD 103,520 (2023) |
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| Operating Profit | MDL -20.8 thousand / USD -1,150 (2023) |
| Advertising (in % of total funding) | Missing Data |
| Market Share | Missing Data |