The Moscow Times reports that the brilliant Russian pundit Georgy Bovt, often published on La Russophobe, has been fired in a Kremlin-prompted political attack.

Georgy Bovt has been dismissed from his posts of editor of both the Profil and BusinessWeek magazines in what he said Tuesday was a Kremlin-backed move. "This was initially Sergei Rodionov's idea, which was supported by the Kremlin," Bovt said, without elaborating. The two magazines are owned by the Rodionov publishing house. Profil is published in cooperation with Germany's Der Spiegel, while BusinessWeek is under license from the U.S. magazine of the same name. Rodionov could not be immediately reached for comment. Bovt, who writes a column for The Moscow Times and formerly served as Izvestia's editor, said he had faced perpetual difficulties with Rodionov over political reporting and payments to journalists. Bovt was replaced at Profil by Mikhail Leontyev, a nationalist television journalist. Leontyev told Ekho Moskvy radio on Tuesday that Rodionov had made him a generous offer that he could not refuse. He declined to elaborate. Bovt said the new editor of BusinessWeek would be Olga Romanova, who left Ren-TV in late 2005 after accusing the channel's management of censoring her news program. Meanwhile, the Rodionov publishing house's president, Alexei Volin, said Tuesday that he had resigned but then accepted the post of board chairman. Bovt explained the move as internal politics.