The Samara region, an industrial hub on the banks of the Volga, has over 500 registered media, says Andrei Gavriushenko, the co-editor of Delo, a business magazine.

ECONOMIST: A spider's web of hidden controls

Viktor Zapolskii, editor and founder of a Russian-language weekly, Delo No (Case Number), is being sued by Misir Ashyrkulov, a former minister of security and now a presidential aide.

ECONOMIST: Kirgizstan

Yet even there, in one of the most prosperous regions outside Moscow and St Petersburg, the company that owns Delo and a handful of sister publications is one of only three publishing houses not owned by another business.

ECONOMIST: A spider's web of hidden controls