There were 13 bidders for the licence, but the broadcasting authorities opted for the Media-Socium Group, an unusual alliance of political heavyweights and some of the country's most critical journalists.

The editorial team will include star anchorman Yevgeny Kiselyov and other journalists who had formerly been employed at TV-6, a channel which had provided critical coverage of government policy.

But their new bosses, former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and the leader of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Arkady Volsky, enjoy close relations with the Kremlin.

The BBC's Russian Affairs analyst Stephen Dalziel says the influence of the two men is likely to ensure the journalists do not ruffle too many feathers above.

Freedom of speech

The closure of TV-6 in January was widely seen as an attack on the freedom of the media, coming less than a year after the forcible takeover of another channel, NTV, by a company close to the government.