Listyev, Vladislav Nikolayevich

▪ 1996

      Russian journalist and television personality (b. 1956—d. March 1, 1995, Moscow, Russia), as an investigative journalist, a popular game-show host, and a tough network executive, was central to the emergence of a more independent, Westernized style of television during and after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Listyev studied journalism at the Moscow State University and began his career in radio. In 1987 he was chosen to be a presenter on "Vzglyad" ("View"), a lively new weekly television newsmagazine on which he took advantage of the era of glasnost ("openness") to cover many previously taboo political, economic, and social subjects. When the show was dropped in 1990, he became host of "Pole chudes" ("Field of Wonders"), a Russian version of the U.S. show "Wheel of Fortune." As the head of his own production company from 1992, he produced and served as host of the political interview program "Chas pik" ("Rush Hour"). In early 1995 he was named to head state-run Ostankino television and was responsible for overseeing its conversion to a partially privatized station, Russian Public Television (ORT). Listyev was assassinated outside his apartment in what was widely believed to be a contract killing by organized crime figures who objected to a proposed ban on lucrative commercial advertising on ORT.

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