evening of March 1, Listyev was assassinated at the entrance of his apartment building. The candidacy of a new CEO generated a lot of controversy among shareholders, because, under the Charter, all minority shareholders had to reach a consensus (private individuals and the State owned 49% and 51% of the television channel respectively). Boris Berezovsky, one of the main minority shareholders, offered this post to Ernst, whom Valentin Yumashev had introduced to him, but Ernst refused. Several months later, however, he changed his mind and accepted the post of executive producer. On 3 September 1999, following the resignation of Igor Shabdurasulov, who had been at the helm of ORT since October 1998, Ernst became the TV channel's interim CEO, while maintaining his post of executive producer. As recommended by Shabdurasulov and with the support of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and Boris Berezovsky, the meeting of the ORT shareholders appointed Ernst new CEO of ORT on 6 October 1999. He continued to combine the roles of CEO and executive producer until July 2001, when Alexander Faifman became the new executive producer of ORT. CEO of ORT and Channel One Russia (1999) At the time of Ernst's appointment as CEO in Fall 1999, Berezovsky had de facto control of the channel's information policy through the Directorate of Information Programs, headed by his friend Tatyana Koshkaryova since Summer 1999. After deep divisions emerged between Berezovsky and Vladimir Putin, the new President of the Russian Federation, Berezovsky sold his stock of shares to Roman Abramovich. In his testimony given by the former head of the President's Office Alexander Voloshin at Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in England in the discussion of the lawsuit that Berezovsky had filed against Abramovich in 2011, Voloshin said that the CEO of ORT needed to get rid of Berezovsky's informal influence, hence pressure exerted on Berezovsky in 2000. According to Voloshin, after this Ernst set things straight. ORT changes its name Spearheaded by Ernst on 29 July 2002, ORT shareholders voted, at their annual meeting, for the restoration of the TV channel's historical name, Channel One. Ernst explained this name change by a discrepancy between the channel's legal status and the notion of public television. Channel One Russia retained its right to the ORT trademark. Ernst was considering the possibility of using it as a venue for testing new projects and participating in competitions