Russian editor to resign after reporting on Putin's circle

The editor-in-chief of Russia's RBC media group, whose outlets published revelations about the commercial interests of people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is to leave her job to start a sabbatical four months earlier than planned.

Law enforcement officials last week searched the offices of Mikhail Prokhorov, the tycoon who controls RBC. People close to the media group said the raid was linked, at least in part, to official displeasure at their reporting.

The RBC newspaper, part of the group, had in the past few months reported on the business interests of Putin's son-in-law, and wrote in detail about people in Putin's circle who were named in the leaked "Panama Papers" as having offshore firms.

The Kremlin denied there was any political motive behind the searches, which officials said were related to an investigation into a bank that one of Prokhorov's firms had bailed out.

In a statement, RBC holding said its editor-in-chief, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, was taking a sabbatical to study at Stanford University in the United States during the 2016-2017 academic year.

The statement said that she would start her sabbatical after the May Day holidays, which in Russia end on May 10. However, in a post on her Facebook page dated from the start of this month, Osetinskaya said she would start her sabbatical in September.

There was no immediate explanation from the company or from Osetinskaya for the discrepancy over the dates.