TEHRAN Several thousand people demonstrated Saturday in the Russian capital for press freedom in general and to show support for the television channel NTV which has been under attack from the Kremlin, DPA reported.

More than 3,000 people attended a demonstration for press freedom addressed by Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Vladimir Lukin, reformist Yabloko Party leader Grigory Yavlinsky and representatives of the Liberal Union of right forces.

Participants called for the media in Gusinsky's media most group to be maintained independent of the government. These include the NTV television channel, the radio stations Echo Moskvy, the daily paper ****Zevodnya**** and the weekly ****Journal Itogi****.

Russia's semi-state-owned Gazprom Corporation, the main creditor to the heavily indebted NTV channel, has been trying to win control of the station.

Russian justice authorities are prosecuting Gusinsky, who is in Spain, for credit fraud.

Gusinsky has denied the charges against him and has accused the Kremlin of mounting a campaign to stop his media's critical reporting on President Vladimir Putin.

Spanish press reports earlier this week said Madrid's National Court was expected to reject a Russian extradition request for Gusinsky.

The court Monday freed the 48-year-old Gusinsky on five-million- dollar bail, and judicial sources said that it was expected to announce shortly a decision not to extradite him.

The Spanish government will have the final word on whether Gusinsky will be handed over to the Russian authorities.

Moscow accuses the owner of the media most company of defrauding Gazprom by not repaying a debt worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Gusinsky was first detained on December 12, but placed under house arrest on December 22 in San Roque on the southern coast where he has a residence.

The magnate was briefly detained again three weeks ago to attend the extradition hearing.

Meanwhile German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, stepping into a vacuum created by a new cooler U.S. approach to Russia, will try to advance key business projects in talks next week with President Vladimir Putin.

But the summit in Russia's second city and Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg on Monday and Tuesday could well be overshadowed by Western concerns over media freedoms in Russia, Reuters reported.

Germany has moved quickly to foster closer ties with Moscow against the background of strains between Moscow and the new U.S. administration of President George W. Bush.

Putin, a fluent German speaker from his time as a KGB spy in former East Germany, stressed Moscow's desire to boost ties with Europe in a state of the nation address to Parliament this week.

He made no mention of Washington. Ties have suffered after weeks of scandals over expulsions of alleged spies and accusations by senior U.S. officials that Russia contributed to proliferation of nuclear technology and could pose a threat.

Schroeder is expected to share with Putin his impressions from a meeting with Bush in Washington late last month.

The St. Petersburg talks will set in motion the first of several debt-for-equity projects in which Russia is to offer stakes in attractive enterprises in exchange for Berlin writing off some of Moscow's $16 billion debt.

********************** Laying to Rest Past Ghosts **********

The visit will also be heavy on symbolism.

Emphasizing a willingness to lay to rest the ghosts of the past, Schroeder will lay a wreath in a cemetery for the hundreds of thousands of Russians killed in the Nazis' 900-day World War II siege of Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was then known.

Germany is considering, along with other European Union states, providing funds to help restore some of St. Petersburg's imperial splendor for the city's 300th anniversary in 2003.

Though both men will concentrate on international affairs and business matters, the fight for control of NTV, Russia's sole national independent channel, could steal the show.

Putin has so far remained silent on natural gas monopoly Gazprom's attempt this week to oust NTV's management and key editorial bosses. Schroeder has promised to raise the issue.

NTV says the Kremlin is using the state-backed Gazprom, to which the channel owes millions of dollars, as a tool to silence a vocal critic.

Putin had to answer awkward questions about the fate of independent media in Russia at last June's summit with Schroeder. He says he supports free speech and has denied any involvement in Gazprom's year-long drive to take control of NTV.

The summit, the third meeting between the two leaders this year, will involve talks with a long list of ministers, including economic, defence and foreign policy chiefs.

Among topics due to be addressed are U.S. plans for a missile defence which has infuriated Moscow and raised concern in European capitals and prospective cooperation between Moscow and Europe on regional security, including the Balkans.