Animal Planet in Moscow

By Sean Gregory

Who's the man behind Moscow's first connection to cable TV and high-speed Internet? He's Frank Baker, 73, a U.S. naval officer in the Korean War. Baker is president of a small New York City venture-capital firm, Andersen Group, that plans to close a $40 million deal to purchase 51% of ComCor-TV (CCTV), a Moscow broadband provider, in the fall. CCTV has wired some 130,000 dwellings in the city and plans to connect 70,000 more in the upscale Central Administrative District by next March. A 47-channel package, which includes Russian-language versions of Animal Planet and Fox Kids, costs $12 a month. (Unlimited high-speed Web service adds $61.) "This is a unique opportunity for us. Muscovites want exposure to Western content," Baker says. His partner in this project? CCTV chairman Yuri Pripachkin, a former captain in the Soviet army. --By Sean Gregory