NTV affair
The NTV affair (Russian: Дело НТВ, romanized: Delo NTV) was a campaign of harassment against and a hostile takeover of the independent NTV television network by Gazprom and the government of Russia, lasting from the May 2000 raid on its offices by the Federal Tax Police Service and its 14 April 2001 buyout by Gazprom-Media, the media arm of Gazprom. The campaign has been widely described as politically motivated, with the intention of cracking down on opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia and independent media.