RIA Novosti

   RIA Novosti, or the Russian Information Agency Novosti (from Russian: Rossiiskoie agentstvo mezhdunarodnykh novostei “RIA Novosti”), is a state-owned news agency based in Moscow. It publishes news and analytical reports on social, political, economic, financial, sport, and cultural issues on the Internet and through e-mail service and RSS in the main European languages and in Arabic, Japanese, and Mandarin. It has a network of correspondent agencies in the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and over 40 non-CIS countries. In Russia, the news agency provides information for the presidential administration, Russian government, State Duma, government departments and main ministries, administrations of Russian regions, diplomatic missions, and public organizations. RIA Novosti was created in 1991 on the basis of two information agencies that had operated in the Soviet Union since the end of World War II. The new establishment became a state news and analytical agency. In 1997, the television channel Kul’tura was founded on the basis of the RIA Novosti TV channel. In 1998, the growing media firm was renamed the Russian Information Agency Vesti (in Russian, vesti means “news” or “reports”), while the news agency section retained the name of RIA Novosti.

   See also Russia Today.