Russia Beyond

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Russia Beyond has operated under at least four different names since it first appeared in 2007. What began as Russia Beyond The Headlines, a newspaper insert paid to sit alongside some of the most trusted mastheads in the Western world, became something far more contested over the years that followed. How did a project born inside a Russian government newspaper end up bundled into the weekend editions of the Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and La Repubblica? And what does it mean when a media outlet pays another publication to carry its pages? Those questions trail Russia Beyond from its founding to its latest reinvention as Gateway to Russia in December 2024.

• 2. Born in Rossiyskaya Gazeta

  ›

  Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a newspaper published by the government of Russia, launched Russia Beyond The Headlines in 2007. The project's first publisher was Eugene Abov, who held the position of deputy CEO at Rossiyskaya Gazeta at the time. The inaugural distribution arrangement placed a Russia-themed supplement inside the British Daily Telegraph and the American Washington Post, appearing there under the name Russia Now. That pairing established the template the outlet would pursue for years: renting space in respected foreign publications to reach readers who had not sought out Russian state media on their own.

• 3. The Insert Strategy

  ›

  Paying to appear alongside established newspapers was a deliberate and expensive approach. Russia Beyond paid the Daily Telegraph £40,000 per month to distribute its material as a supplement to the paper's weekend edition; the Daily Telegraph's website also carried content from the outlet. In France, Le Figaro accepted similar arrangements. In Germany, Süddeutsche Zeitung was a partner, and in Italy, La Repubblica carried the insert as well. Across the Atlantic, the partnership with The Washington Post ran until 2015, while The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were bundling the insert into their regular editions as recently as 2018.

• 4. A Shift in Oversight

  ›

  On the 9th of January 2016, Russia Beyond The Headlines was absorbed into TV-Novosti, the parent organisation that also operates RT, the broadcaster formerly known as Russia Today. The project kept its own distinct brand after the transfer, so readers would have noticed nothing different on the surface. A year later, in 2017, the outlet ended all printed versions of its publication, moving entirely to digital. That shift came in the same year the project shortened its name: on the 5th of September 2017, Russia Beyond The Headlines dropped the last two words of its title and became Russia Beyond. The English edition's appearance was also overhauled at that point, removing elements the team considered distracting when reading articles or watching video.

• 5. Propaganda Accusations

  ›

  Critics raised questions about the outlet's independence almost from its first year of operation. In 2007, Jack Shafer, then a journalist at Slate, accused Russia Beyond of being propaganda. In 2014, Roy Greenslade, a commentator at The Guardian, made the same charge. The accusations put pressure on the Western newspapers that carried the insert, since readers browsing those supplements would encounter the material without a clear signal that it originated from a Russian government-backed source. The arrangement prompted recurring debate about whether paid supplements distributed inside editorially independent newspapers sufficiently disclosed their origins to ordinary readers.

• 6. Rebrands and Reinventions

  ›

  Visual identity became a recurring concern for the outlet. Russia Beyond used a stylised letter R as its logo for nine years before replacing it with a new design on the 20th of February 2023. Less than two years after that logo change, the outlet underwent a far larger transformation: in December 2024, it rebranded entirely as Gateway to Russia, altering not just its visual presentation but its name for the fourth time in its history. The project was founded by RIA Novosti, Russia's state news agency, and has remained within the orbit of Russian state media structures throughout all of its name changes and redesigns.