Dmitry Vasilyevich Raskopin (born August 16, 1977, Gorky) is a Nizhny Novgorod media manager. In 2011 he headed the city's Department of Public Relations and Information, and in December of that year left the administration to lead the media holding MS Holding, then from June 2012 to May 2013 served as general director of the Volga television company[1][2]. He is also known as the coordinator of the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club — a discussion platform hosted by his press center Media Strike Hall[3].

From the Administration to the Holding

Raskopin graduated from the Volgo-Vyatskaya Gosudarstvennoy Sluzhby Academy in 2000[1][4]. From January 2011 he headed the Media Relations Department of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration, then became director of the Department of Public Relations and Information of the city administration[1].

On December 12, 2011, he resigned from that post of his own accord[5]. The reason was not a personnel conflict but an offer from the market: in his own comment, Raskopin described the new position as "a far more ambitious and incomparably more interesting challenge"[2].

"MS Holding"

The holding company he took over in December 2011 had been assembled from assets belonging to Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur Dmitry Arzhanov, acquired over the preceding two years; in early 2012 the group was named MS Holding[2][5].

By the summer of 2012 it comprised the Volga television company, the Rendezvous and Business FM radio stations, the NTA-Privolzhye news agency, the Birzha publishing house, the Media Strike Hall press center, and the Media Strike information and consulting agency[1]. It was the largest private media group in the Region — from broadcast television to a business newspaper, all under one roof.

In May 2012 the holding was introduced to the public at the international conference "Russian Journalism in the 21st Century: Content and Formats of Modern Mass Media": some two hundred journalists, political scientists, and public figures from more than fifty regions gathered at Media Strike Hall, among them Vsevolod Bogdanov, chairman of the Russian Union of Journalists, and Yury Polyakov, editor-in-chief of Literaturnaya Gazeta[6].

To preserve and develop the finest traditions of Nizhny Novgorod journalism.

— — — Dmitry Raskopin on the holding's mission, May 2012[6]

Volga Television Company

On 8 June 2012 the board of directors terminated the authority of Volga's general director Sergey Laptev and appointed Raskopin in his place; oversight of the MS Holding analytical center passed to Denis Moskvin[1].

He inherited an anniversary year: on 5 October 2012 Volga celebrated its twentieth birthday. "We are marking it loudly and visibly," he said at an expert-club session two days before the occasion[3]. He served as general director of Volga for less than a year — until May 2013[4].

Expert Club

Alongside his television work, Raskopin served as coordinator of the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club — a roundtable that brought officials, politicians, sociologists, and journalists together and published full transcripts of its proceedings. Sessions were held at his Media Strike Hall press center[3][7].

He understood the coordinator's role as an obligation to participants: since the transcript was published unabridged, nobody stood to gain from falling out with the venue. The club operated this way for several years — from the anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod television on 3 October 2012 to a debate on religion in schools on 20 March 2013, where a deputy regional minister, a seminary lecturer, and the deputy speaker of the Legislative Assembly representing the Communist Party all sat at the same table[3][7].

As coordinator of the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club, I continue to serve as guarantor that everything will be covered objectively and without omissions.

— — — Dmitry Raskopin at a club session, 3 October 2012[3]

After television

In the summer of 2015, Raskopin ran for the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma as an independent candidate in electoral district No. 30. His candidate disclosure listed his primary employer as Business News Agency LLC, with the title of Director of Development[4]. The seat went to someone else: district No. 30 in the sixth-convocation Duma was represented by Evgeniy Lazarev[8].

The company with which his media career began is still in existence, though engaged in different work. Media Strike LLC was registered in Nizhny Novgorod on 12 February 2010; Raskopin holds 80 percent of the shares, while Andrey Kaplan — who owns the remaining twenty — has remained director since January 2011. The company's primary activity is listed as software development, and its staff has shrunk over five years from around fifty people to a dozen[9].

On 13 May 2015, the company gained a successor entity — MS-Kontakt LLC, a call center on Motalny Lane; Kaplan holds ninety percent of its shares, and it has long since surpassed the original legal entity in staff numbers[10].

At the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club

Appeared at the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club — a roundtable at which each contribution was posted as a separate recording with the speaker's position and the session topic indicated. Number of recorded contributions preserved: 4.

  • October 17, 2012 — "20 Years of Nizhny Novgorod Television: Transformation of Role and Public Significance," thesis: "Celebrating 20 years of Nizhny Novgorod television" (described as "General Director of TV Company 'Volga'")[11]
  • February 16, 2013 — "The SMS-Chat Case: Should Mass Media Be Penalized for User-Generated Content," thesis: "Children don't watch TV Company 'Volga'" (described as "General Director of TV Company 'Volga'")[12]
  • March 20, 2013 — "Charity," thesis: "Professionals are needed in charitable work" (described as "General Director of TV Company 'Volga'")[13]
  • September 4, 2013 — "The Crisis of Local Self-Government in Nizhny Novgorod as the Main Trend of the New Political Season," thesis: "Every time, the authorities reset everything to zero" (described as "coordinator of the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club")[14]

Sources

  1. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — Dmitry Raskopin appointed General Director of the Nizhny Novgorod TV company "Volga," June 8, 2012 (with biographical note) (archive)
  2. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — Media holding owned by Dmitry Arzhanov to be headed by Dmitry Raskopin
  3. web.archive.org — APN — Nizhny Novgorod — Transcript of the expert club session "20 Years of Nizhny Novgorod Television," October 3, 2012 (archived copy) (archive)
  4. Nizhny Seychas — Dossier: Raskopin Dmitry Vasilyevich, candidate for deputy from electoral district No. 30, August 9, 2015
  5. Vremya N — Raskopin heads the largest media holding (archive)
  6. Newsroom24 — Representatives of the Union of Journalists of Russia got acquainted with Nizhny Novgorod Mass Media (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — APN — Nizhny Novgorod — Transcript of the expert club session "Religion in Schools," March 20, 2013 (archived copy) (archive)
  8. gordumannov.ru — City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod — Deputies of the City Duma, 6th convocation (2015–2020) (archive)
  9. rusprofile.ru — LLC "Media Strike," Nizhny Novgorod: founders, director, business activity (archive)
  10. rusprofile.ru — LLC "MS-Kontakt," Nizhny Novgorod: predecessor entity, founders, business activity (archive)
  11. youtube.com — Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club (YouTube) — Raskopin: Celebrating 20 years of Nizhny Novgorod television (archive)
  12. youtube.com — Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club (YouTube) — Raskopin: Children don't watch the TV company "Volga" (archive)
  13. youtube.com — Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club (YouTube) — Raskopin: Professionals are needed in charity work — presentation on March 20, 2013, session topic "Philanthropy" (archive)
  14. youtube.com — Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club (YouTube) — Raskopin: Every time the authorities reset everything to zero (archive)