''Lenta.ru'' (russian: Лента.Ру; stylised as LƐNTA.RU) is a

Russian-language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living Eas ...

online newspaper An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Going online created more opportunities for newsp ...

. Based in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, it is owned by Rambler Media Group. In 2013, the

Alexander Mamut Alexander Leonidovich Mamut also spelled Aleksandr, (russian: Алекса́ндр Леони́дович Маму́т; born 29 January 1960, Moscow) is a Russian billionaire lawyer, banker and investor. Used to be (until 2020) a co-owner of Ram ...

-owned companies "SUP Media" and "Rambler-Afisha" merged to form "Afisha.Rambler.SUP", which owns Lenta.ru. The online newspaper is one of the most popular Russian language online resources with over 600 thousand visitors daily.

History

In 1999

Anton Nosik Anton Borisovich Nossik (russian: Анто́н Бори́сович Но́сик; 4 July 1966 – 9 July 2017) was a Russian journalist, social activist and blogger (10th place in RuNet according to Yandex.Blogs ranking). Sometimes he is calle ...

launched Lenta.ru together with the Foundation for Effective Politics. It was (like vesti.ru) a sister e-news project under the brand gazeta.ru. Nosik served as its chief editor till 2004. A

Berkman Center The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008 ...

2010 study found it to be the most cited news source in the Russian

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

. In 2013, Alexander Mamut through his ownership of the Afisha-Rambler-SUP Group acquitred Lenta.ru. In 2013, Lenta.ru was ranked in 5th place in terms of traffic among European news sites by comScore-study. In January 2013, the website was relaunched with a new design and significant changes to the rubricating system. This was the most serious update of the site since 2004. In 2020, Mamut sold Rambler to Sberbank.

Interview with Tarasenko

Following a March 10, 2014, Lenta.ru interview by Ilya Azar uk, Ілля Вільямович Азар of uk, Андрій Іванович Тарасенко from the

Right Sector Right Sector ( uk, Пра́вий се́ктор, ''Pravyi sektor'') is a right-wing to far-right, Ukrainian nationalist organization. It originated in November 2013 as a right-wing, paramilitary confederation of several radical nationalist orga ...

's Kyiv branch,

Roskomnadzor The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as ''Roskomnadzor'' (RKN) (russian: Роскомнадзор �КН, is the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, co ...

immediately issued a press release on March 12, 2014, in which Lenta.ru was implicated in violating numerous Russian media laws, information laws, and laws to counter extremism because the interview allowed a leader from the group to appeal to Ukrainian citizens to support pro-Ukraine causes and that the article contained a link to

Dmytro Yarosh Dmytro Anatoliyovych Yarosh ( uk, Дмитро Анатолійович Я́рош; born 30 September 1971) is a Ukrainian activist, politician, nationalist and military commander who is the main commander of the Right Sector's Ukrainian Vol ...

's March 1, 2014 appeal.) and was charged in absentia by Moscow's

Basmanny Basmanny District (russian: райо́н Басма́нный) is a district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. Population: The district extends northeast from Kitai-gorod, within the radial boundaries o ...

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

for his actions. Since the warning by Roskomnadzor was the second issued in a 12-month period, Roskomnadzor would ask the courts to terminate Lenta.ru's mass media license. Both the BBC and ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' called Russia's response to Lenta.ru as

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

Firing of Timchenko

On March 12, 2014 the owner,

, fired the Editor-in-Chief

Galina Timchenko Galina Viktorovna Timchenko ( rus, link=no, Гали́на Ви́кторовна Ти́мченко; born 8 May 1962) is a Russian journalist and the executive editor and owner of ''Meduza' Early life and education Timchenko was born in Moscow ...

and replaced her with Alexey Goreslavsky. Thirty-nine employees out of the total 84, including Director-general Yuliya Minder, lost their jobs. This includes 32 writing journalists, all photo-editors (5 people) and 6 administrators. The employees of ''Lenta.ru'' issued a statement that the purpose of the move was to install a new Editor-in-Chief directly controlled by the Kremlin and turn the website into a propaganda tool.

Dunja Mijatović Dunja Mijatović ( sr-cyr, Дуња Мијатовић; born 8 September 1964) is a Bosnian human rights expert and activist, serving as the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. She was elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the C ...

, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, referred to the move as a manifestation of censorship. Galina Timchenko, together with a team of around 20 journalists who resigned from their jobs at ''Lenta.ru'', started the new internet newspaper ''

Meduza ''Meduza'' ( rus, Медуза, t=jellyfish) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent '' Lenta.ru'' news website. Free m ...

''.

Incident during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 9 May 2022, the Russian Victory Day, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lenta.ru briefly displayed information about the Russian war against Ukraine in a way that did not comply with government regulations or the enforced guidelines of Lenta.ru. Articles were published regarding the mass killing of civilians, looting, abandoned bodies of Russian troops, the destruction of

Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast ( Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russia ...

, censorship, governmental lies to relatives of deceased soldiers, attacks against the freedom of press, and more. Lenta.ru journalists Egor Polyakov and Alexandra Miroshnikova have stated that they were the authors of these articles, and reported that they now need new jobs, lawyers, and political asylum. The content was quickly removed, but can be found in

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

Chief editors

(1999–2004) *

(2004–2014) * Alexey Goreslavsky (2014–2016) * Alexander Belonovsky (2016–2017) * Vladimir Todorov (since 2017)

Management

Director-general A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

: Andrey Solomennik *Editor-in-Chief: Vladimir Todorov *Programmer:

Maksim Moshkow Maksim Eugenievich Moshkow (russian: link=no, Максим Евгеньевич Мошков, born 13 October 1966 in Moscow) is a public figure of the Russian Internet segment, the Runet. He graduated from Moscow State University's Departmen ...

(until 2009)

Criticism

In 2014, Lenta.ru received criticism by other journalists after the publication of an article analysing the ethnicity of the richest citizens of Russia;

Nikolai Svanidze Nikolay Karlovich Svanidze (russian: Николай Карлович Сванидзе, born 2 April 1955 in Moscow) is a Russian TV and radio host and member of the Public Chamber of Russia. Biography Nikolai Karlovich Svanidze is named after hi ...

accused the publication of racism.

Awards and recognitions

Lenta.ru has taken first place four times in the Rotor contest in the category "Information site of the year" and once, in 2000 in the category "News site of the year". Maxim Moshkov has won the Rotor twice (in the categories "Programmer of the Year" in 1999 and "Man of the Year" in 2005).

Notes

References

External links

* {{in lang, ru Internet properties established in 1999 News agencies based in Russia Russian news websites Mass media in Moscow 1999 establishments in Russia Conspiracist media