RIA Novosti

• 1. Soviet Origins And War Propaganda

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  On the 24th of June 1941, the Soviet Information Bureau opened its doors in Moscow. This new state-run agency emerged just three days after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Council of People's Commissars and the Communist Party Central Committee issued a resolution to establish this body. Its primary mission involved overseeing international news and military events during the war. From October 1941 until March 1942, the bureau operated from Kuibyshev, now known as Samara. A.S. Shcherbakov led the organization from 1941 through 1945. Sovinformburo directed activities for various committees including the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Women. It distributed information through 1,171 newspapers and 523 magazines across 23 countries. Radio stations broadcasted messages about the struggle against Fascism to listeners worldwide.

• 2. Evolution Through The Cold War Era

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  The Novosti Press Agency succeeded the Soviet Information Bureau on the 21st of February 1961. Boris Burkov served as the head of this new agency from 1961 to 1970. The constituent conference adopted an agency charter on the 3rd of April 1961. APN established bureaus in over 120 countries throughout the globe. The publication printed 60 illustrated newspapers and magazines in 45 languages. One-time circulation reached 4.3 million copies according to historical records. The agency published over 200 books with a total annual circulation of 20 million copies. A TV center opened within the APN structure in 1989. This television unit later transformed into the TV-Novosti company which operates RT media network since 2005. Ivan Udaltsov led the organization from 1970 until 1975. Lev Tolkunov took charge from 1975 to 1983. Pavel Naumov served as chairman between 1983 and 1986.

• 3. Post-Soviet Restructuring And Media Expansion

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  Mikhail Gorbachev issued a decree establishing the Information Agency Novosti on the 27th of July 1990. Albert Vlasov became the chairman of the IAN Board during this transition period. The agency created a computer databank containing over 250,000 documents initially. Infonews hotline operations began inside the agency in 1991. RIA Novosti had about 80 bureaus and news offices abroad by September 1991. The radio channel RIA-Radio started working in 1996. August 1997 saw the setup of the TV channel Kultura under VGTRK sponsorship. The agency joined the VGTRK information holding in May 1998. It was renamed Russian Information Agency Vesti in May 1998. On the 1st of April 2004, the organization made changes to its founding documents and retained the name RIA Novosti. RT launched globally in 2005 as a multilingual television news network funded by the government but operating autonomously.

• 4. 2013 Liquidation And Rossiya Segodnya Merger

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  Vladimir Putin signed a decree liquidating RIA Novosti on the 9th of December 2013. The assets and workforce transferred to the newly created Rossiya Segodnya agency. Dmitry Kiselyov became president of the new information agency after his anchorman role at Channel One Russia. Margarita Simonyan learned about the reorganization from listening to Kommersant-FM rather than official channels. Staff received options to transfer contracts or sign redundancy agreements starting March 2014. Roskomnadzor registered RIA Novosti as part of the new agency on the 8th of April 2014. Sputnik multimedia platform launched on the 10th of November 2014 as an international replacement for both RIA Novosti and Voice of Russia. Svetlana Mironyuk served as the last editor-in-chief before the merger. She was the first woman appointed to that role in the agency's history. The enterprise property remained federally owned according to the organization's charter.

• 5. Controversial Reporting During Ukraine Invasion

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  On the 26th of February 2022, RIA Novosti published an article titled The arrival attack of Russia and the new world. Author Petr Akopov wrote that Russia had won the Russo-Ukrainian War within this piece. The text claimed Ukraine had returned to Russia and described Vladimir Putin's invasion as resolving the Ukrainian question. The article condemned Anglo-Saxons who rule the West for attempting to steal Russian lands. It characterized the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union as a terrible catastrophe. RIA Novosti removed the article promptly after publication but it appeared elsewhere. Sputnik republished the content while The Frontier Post translated it into English under the title The new world order. On the 3rd of April 2022, the agency published What Russia should do with Ukraine which commentators condemned for genocidal intent. An article dated the 30th of July 2025 carried the heading There is no other option: Dont let anyone remain alive in Ukraine.

• 6. International Sanctions And Legal Challenges

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  Canada placed RIA Novosti on its sanctions list in February 2023 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European Union accused the agency of spreading propaganda in May 2024. This accusation led to placing the organization on the EU sanctions list. Twitter blocked four profiles of RIA in 27 countries during August 2022. The platform itself remained unblocked despite these profile restrictions. Twitter operates within Russia where it remains banned by national law. The agency maintains headquarters in Moscow with Anna Gavrilova serving as chief editor. Financial subsidies reached between 2.7 and 2.9 billion roubles in 2013 according to agency records. Over 40 non-CIS countries hosted correspondent networks throughout the agency's operational history.