Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Russian International News and Information agency RIA Novosti on Thursday to congratulate the agency on its 70th anniversary.
The president spoke to experts on media innovations, and visited the new multimedia press center and newsroom and took part in a multimedia editorial briefing.
Medvedev took part in the launching of the agency’s new project Eternal Treasures. In line with the project, the first 100 photographs from RIA Novosti’s archives were downloaded on Wikimedia Commons. RIA Novosti has more than one million photographs, including historically valuable ones, in its archives.
Medvedev also visited the office of the Moskovskiye Novosti (Moscow News) newspaper produced by RIA Novosti.
RIA Novosti is Russia's leading news agency in terms of multimedia technologies, website audience reach and use by the Russian media. The integrated multimedia newsroom, a vast network covering over 45 countries and the Russian regions allow RIA Novosti to deliver news and information in all possible formats, including video, animated infographics and cartoons to professional clients and the end user in 14 languages.
RIA Novosti's history dates back to June 24, 1941, when the Soviet government set up the Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo).
In May 1998, the Agency was renamed the Russian Information Agency Vesti. As a mass media body, it retained the name of RIA Novosti.
