Konstantin Ernst

Early years and education

His father Lev Konstantinovich Ernst, of German descent, was a Soviet biologist and Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He carried out research on genetics, biotechnology, selection of agricultural animals and cloning.

Konstantin Ernst's mother is Svetlana Nilovna Golevinova, a financial officer.

Ernst spent his childhood and youth in Leningrad, where his father had been appointed Head of a new research center. Konstantin graduated from High School No. 35 located on the Vassilyevsky Island and in 1983 got a degree from the Biology and Soil Department of the Leningrad State University.

As a child, Konstantin was fascinated by painting, in particular, the work of the Soviet avant-garde painter Alexander Labas.

Executive producer of ORT (1995–2001)

On 25 January 1995, Vladislav Listyev was appointed CEO of ORT. A little over a month later, on the evening of 1 March, 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 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.

Ernst is an avid collector of comic books. Ernst has never been officially married.

His first common-law partner was Anna Silunas, a theatre critic and daughter of Vidas Silunas, a professor and Chair of the Foreign Theatre Department of the Moscow Art Theater School.

In 1998, he began a relationship with Larisa Sinelshchikova. It lasted until spring 2010, when Sinelshchikova put an end to it and moved from her upscale apartment on Povarskaya Street, where the couple had resided until then, to her own mansion in prestigious area of Moscow Oblast (a federal subject of Russia). Contrary to allegations in some American and British media, Ernst and Larisa Sinelshchikova were never had common household and common business, assets or property.

On 21 July 2014, the Russian version of Tatler announced that "Konstantin Ernst had definitely put his young girlfriend on the list of his social events", adding that "Sofya Zaika, former employee of the Ulyana Sergeenko fashion house, readily changed funny parties at Simach and audacious photo sessions for cultural receptions and timid remarks that are hardly audible from behind the TV titan’s shoulder".

Russian television circles learned about a relationship between 25-year-old Zaika and 52-year-old Ernst as early as the middle of 2013.

In the past, Sofya Zaika had also dated Fyodor Boomer, better known as Kto DJ, and the photographer Timofey Kolesnikov. Sofya is also a close friend and protégé of Russian director and screenwriter Renata Litvinova who calls Sofya her ‘favorite actress’.

A number of Russian media sources announced on 22 July 2017 that Ernst married Sofya Zaika, but there is no official confirmation of this marriage.

A number of Russian media sources state that Ernst "treats the channel as if it were his patrimony" and that, at the same time, "Ernst never talks about money straightforwardly, but when someone comes to see him about a project, it gets clear that he will have to share the 'cake'", and that "when considering the launch of this or that TV project, his first question is how it will profit him".

According to the leaked Pandora Papers, in 2014 Konstantin Ernst received a loan from a state-connected bank to acquire a stake in a project that saw Moscow theaters demolished to make way for shopping malls. Ernst's involvement was concealed by his partners and lawyers.

In May 2016, Ernst was included in the sanctions list of Ukraine by President Petro Poroshenko; Ernst was denied entry to Ukraine.

In September 2017, Vladimir Solovyov, a TV host on Russia-1, said in an interview that Ivan Urgant's bold joke about 'nightingale brood' being a good name for a show on Rossiya, which he had made in his show on Channel One Russia, was not a spontaneous but planned act approved by Ernst. "This dig on me took place on television! However, I didn't retaliate against Moscow, but Vania ran wild in his earnest. Someone must be having hard time getting over the transfer of some presenters from Channel One Russia to Rossiya. Urgant is just a tool", Solovyov explained his point of view, adding that "things are not usually done this way on TV" and that "this is a declaration of war".

In September 2017, Mikhail Goryachev, content manager of Russia's leading digital television operator Tricolor TV, said that content distribution still refers to the situation when Ernst "stuffs subscribers with what he deems necessary" via TV channels and suggested that such content distribution will not be done through intermediaries but directly.