Republic (previously known as Slon or Slon.ru) is a Russian analytical online magazine that mainly covers politics, business and economics. It is published by the Moscow Digital Media private limited company.

History

Slon

The Slon.ru website was launched on 18 May 2009. The website's name Slon () is a reference to the

blind men and an elephant The parable of the blind men and an elephant is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and imagine what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elepha ...

parable, in which blind people disagreed about what the elephant looked like. Slon authors stated that its mission is to show "the whole elephant" to its readers. The website mainly publishes materials about politics, economics and business. The first editor-in-chief and executive director of Slon.ru was the Russian journalist and publisher

Leonid Bershidsky Leonid Davidovich Bershidsky ( rus, Леони́д Дави́дович Берши́дский; born November 23, 1971) is a Russian journalist, publisher and columnist for ''Bloomberg View'', the editorial division of Bloomberg News. He is curr ...

. Among the first employees of Slon.ru were Russian journalists , Olga Romanova, former deputy editor-in-chief of ''

SmartMoney ''SmartMoney'' was ''The Wall Street Journal''s magazine of personal business. The finance magazine launched in 1992 by Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Company. Its first editor was Norman Pearlstine. In 2010, Hearst sold its stake to Dow ...

'' magazine Yuri Granovsky and former editor-in-chief of '' Russky Newsweek'' magazine Dmitry Kuznets. The main shareholders are Russian media managers

Natalya Sindeyeva Natalya Vladimirovna Sindeyeva (, ; born June 11, 1971) is a Russian journalist, founder, main owner and chief executive officer of the Dozhd media holding, which includes the Dozhd TV channel, the Republic.ru online magazine and the magazine. ...

and . In 2010, the website changed its format; the main goal was to move towards the creation of an expert platform. The move was inspired by the concept of the ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' online magazine. On 18 February 2011, Bershidsky announced that he had left Slon. Since the summer of 2014, the website has been working on a paid subscription basis.

Republic

On 6 November 2016, it was announced that the website had changed its name to Republic. The change also included a new design and three additional sections; the sphere of interest of the magazine has expanded to the topics of science and technology. In August 2016, , a Russian journalist and former deputy editor-in-chief of

RBC RBC may refer to: Media and arts * ''RBK Daily'', a general business newspaper published in Moscow, Russia. * RBK Group, a large Russian media group * RBC Ministries, now Our Daily Bread Ministries, a Christian media outlet in Grand Rapdis, Mich ...

, became the editor-in-chief of the magazine. In 2018, Republic was transformed into a platform for a group of online magazines. In June 2021, Russian journalist

Dmitry Kolezev Dmitry Evgenievich Kolezev (russian: link=no, Дмитрий Евгеньевич Колезев) is a Russian journalist from the region called Urals who is known internationally for working at independent online mass media, dedicated primaril ...

became the chief editor. On 15 October 2021, Moscow Digital Media was labelled as a '

foreign agent A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign country while located in another host country, generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic missio ...

' in Russia. In response, Kolezev said that he did not know why the Russian authorities decided to do it. He also said that Republic does not have foreign financing: "... it only exists thanks to subscribers' money".

Awards

In 2010, the website won first place in the Information Site of the Year category in the (Russian Online TOP) competition. In 2010, the diary published on the Slon.ru website won the online voting in the Best Blog nomination in The Best of Blogs (BOBs) competition. In January 2017, Republic journalist Siranush Sharoyan received the ''

Redkollegia ''Redkollegia'' () is an independent media award established by the '' Sreda Foundation'' headed by to support free professional journalism in Russia. The prize is awarded monthly to several authors. The organizers of the award believe that in ...

'' media award for her article "Black Cash. How a Trillion Dollars Was Withdrawn from the Country in 25 Years. The History of the Russian Banking System - Based on Criminal Cases".

Chief editors

May 2009-18 February 2011:

March 2011-August 2011: August 2011-October 2014: November 2014-August 2016: August 2016-July 2017: Irina Malkova August 2017-October 2018: {{Cite web, date=2018-09-13, title=В Republic сменится главный редактор, trans-title=The editor-in-chief will change in Republic, url=http://adindex.ru/news/hr/2018/09/13/174228.phtml, access-date=2021-10-16, website=AdIndex, language=ru 9 June 2021-present:

References

Internet properties established in 2009 Media listed in Russia as foreign agents Political websites Russian news websites Russian-language websites