Forbes Russia editor-in-chief said Monday he had withdrawn his resignation after the parties to the last week’s conflict came to term over the December issue. The issue will be printed ’in its original form,’ the magazine’s publisher said Friday, a day after lawsuit threats prompted the destruction of thousands of copies of the magazine and its editor’s resignation.The magazine on Thursday decided to pull its December issue after the powerful Russian construction firm Inteko threatened to sue, the newspaper Kommersant said. But after destroying some 100,000 copies of the magazine and weathering the resignation of editor Maxim Kashulinsky, Forbes reversed its decision Friday, DPA reports.

At issue was a cover story on Yelena Baturina, the billionaire owner of Inteko and wife of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Forbes’ Russian publisher, Axel Springer Russia, had said Thursday it halted release of the December Forbes due to a fudged Baturina quote on the cover.

The cover quotation said: ’Yelena Baturina: I am guaranteed protection,’ apparently implying a link between her successful business and Luzhkov. In the article, her quote read: ’As with any investor, I am guaranteed protection of my rights.’

The editor, Maxim Kashulinsky, told Kommersant, however, that Axel Springer Russia had decided to remove the entire seven-page article on Baturina’s plans for Inteko after Luzhkov’s term ends and replace it with a translated article from a non-Russian Forbes.

On Friday, Axel Springer Russia, a subsidiary of German publishing giant Axel Springer, said the issue would run with an unabridged version of the Baturina story. ’The issue’s release was stopped due to necessary additional checking of facts in the article as well as the introduction of obligatory changes in the quote on the cover,’ it said.

Kashulinsky, the editor, said the order to halt publication came from Axel Springer’s Berlin headquarters. He informed Forbes’ US offices, which license the rights to print the magazine in foreign countries, of Axel Springer’s decision, he said.

The American office, according to Kommersant, demanded Axel Springer print the original issue.

Russian media buzzed Friday with speculation about the magazine’s principles. News web site Gazeta.ru said Axel Springer Russia head Regina von Flemming would be fired ’today or in the upcoming days,’ without citing its sources.

The daily Vedomosti headlined with ’They put Forbes under the knife.’

Von Flemming could not be reached for comment Friday.

Inteko, meanwhile, said: ’We feel there was a misunderstanding. There were not any, nor are there any, hidden motives,’ the news agency Interfax reported. According to Gazeta.ru, some copies had already been printed by mid-day Friday and sent to magazine kiosks.

On Monday Interfax reported that the headquarters of the Axel Springer publishing house, its Russian office and the Russian edition of Forbes magazine said they were satisfied that the December issue of the Russian edition of Forbes had been published in its initial form including an article about Inteco head and wife of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov Yelena Baturina.

A joint statement of the leadership of the publishing house and the magazine circulated in Moscow on Monday says Axel Springer AG and Axel Springer Russia regret the fact that in explaining the reasons for the delays of the December issue the magazine editorial board could arouse suspicions that its work did not meet the highest standards of journalism.

In its turn, Forbes regretted that after that it had to publicly express doubts about the loyalty of Axel Springer to the principles of independent journalism, the joint statement says. The editorial office and leadership of Axel Springer take pride in the high standards of journalism maintained by the publication and will continue making every effort to continue to meet the epitome of independent high quality press in the future, it says.

The statement was signed by Andreas Wiele, head of Axel Springer AG Magazines and International Divisions, Andreas Tilk, Axel Springer AG President for Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Regina von Flemming, head of Axel Springer Russia and Maksim Kashulinsky, editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Forbes.

Forbes began publishing a Russian edition in April 2004, and released a list of the country’s 100 richest people in its second issue. The magazine’s first editor, American journalist Paul Klebnikov, was shot to death in July 2004.

Popularity: 2% [?]