Gazprom tried to buy the Wall Street Journal?

Maybe Rupert's not so bad after all.

Wall Street Journal reporters unhappy with their new boss should be thankful today, as a report in the Times of London indicates it could have been a lot worse. According to the Times, "an international oil and gas company" held private talks in July to buy the company for more than $5 billion dollars. Sources confirmed the unnamed company was Gazprom, the Russian-controlled energy giant. 

It's highly unlikely the Gazprom bid could have succeeded—the U.S. government would have likely scuttled the deal, as it has in the past when it strong-armed Dubai Ports World into giving up its American holdings. That doesn't mean, however, that the bid is unimportant. It's yet another indication of Russia's increasingly aggressive international posture, and another attempt by Moscow to use Gazprom as a foreign-policy tool. It is also the second time in recent months that Gazprom has attempted to enter the U.S. market (the first being a potential deal with BP). But trying to buy Dow Jones, owner of one of the best newspapers in the world, a symbol of American capitalism? The Russians are nothing if not ambitious.