The Post's Peter Baker and Susan Glasser report that security forces raided the NTV studio Saturday and forced out defiant journalists on behalf of the new management.
Critics view the dramatic pre-dawn takeover as a move to silence free speech in Russia.
Some former NTV journalists plan to set up a rival network . NTV has been at the center of an ongoing battle over free speech in Russia. Vladimir Gusinsky, a wealthy Russian businessman whose holding company controlled NTV, became the target of Kremlin investigations and faces charges by Russian authorities. Gazprom, the state-run energy company headed by a close aide to President Vladimir Putin, was Gusinsky's largest creditor. Gazprom won a controlling interest in NTV, prompting a group of journalists to protest the new management .