Russia Radio Shake-Up Follows Putin Criticism

The editor in chief of an influential Russian radio station recently rebuked by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin for its biting criticism of the Kremlin stepped down from the station’s board of directors after its government-controlled owners announced changes in the board’s membership, including the removal of its only two independent members.

The editor, Aleksei A. Venediktov, said that he would remain in charge of the newsroom at the station, Ekho Moskvy, but that he would not remain on the nine-member board. The authorities said that politics were not involved in the decision to reshuffle the board, but the shake-up at the station, which is controlled by Russia’s government-owned natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, nevertheless sent a chill through the journalistic world in Moscow.