[citation needed] In 1989 at the suggestion of the vice-president of Fakt, the USSR cooperators’ union, Artem Tarasov[13] Yakovlev together with Gleb Pavlovsky started an independent news agency and newspaper Kommersant.

[16] Since 1992 Yakovlev, being the majority shareholder, took up a post as CEO of Kommersant Joint-Stock Company (up to 1992 Vladimir was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper).

[citation needed] In 1999 the majority of shares of Kommersant publishing house were purchased by Boris Berezovsky[17][8][18] and Badri Patarkatsishvili through the American Capital Group.

[1][22] Since 2007 Yakovlev was a member of the board of directors of Sistemy mass media, an affiliate of Sistema Analytical finance company, and in the same year he founded Content bureau.

Prokhorov invested $150 million in the launch of the magazine and website targeting highly paid professionals.

[36] In 2010, Yakovlev signed an open letter to the President of the Russian Federation asking for the quickest solving of crimes against journalists.

Being those of the gilded youth, having been brought up in huge apartments or having spent their childhood abroad, having graduated from the international division of the School of Journalism of Moscow State University, they now make a difference on the television and mass media.

The perfect takeoff and innate lack of fear allows them to remove taboos and visit all the hot spots where no Soviet journalist had been before» Yakovlev received a letter of acknowledgment from the President of the Russian Federation on June 25, 1996, for active involvement of organization and conducting of the election company of the President of the Russian Federation in 1996.