21,000 dailies, over 10,000 magazines, 2,000 radio stations and over 2,500 private TV networks and a hundred or so public ones: there’s no denying it, Russia has developed a major information industry in record time but it’s still not independent of the country’s political-economic system.

The biggest news agency is still Novisti, which is also available on line (www.rian.ru), a decision made in response to the mushrooming of telecommunications in Russia: according to a survey by Fondazione Opinion Publique, Internet users, who in 2004 already numbered 8.8 million (8% of the adult population), will reach 26 million by the end of 2010. Keen not to waste a good business opportunity, editors have channelled much effort into the web, where English language versions are also appearing.

The country’s most popular tabloids are still in Russian though, including the dailies Komsomolskaya Pravda (www.kp.ru), Moskovsky Komsomolets (www.mk.ru) and Argumenty i Fakty (www.aif.ru). Though concentrating on entertainment, there’s no lack of articles and a lot of advertising. One of the main quality papers is the Vedomosti (www.vedomosti.ru). It has a circulation of around 65,000 and is published by an independent, Independent Media (which also owns the Russian Cosmopolitan and the The Moscow Times, a daily) together with the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The Vedomosti is the paper of the Russian middle class but it’s influenced by a number of different political and economic variables. The country’s oldest financial paper is the Kommersant (www.kommersant.ru), which was set up in the ‘90s and has a circulation of around 144,000 and an English language edition (www.kommersant.com). It’s owned by Russian millionaire Boris Berezovsky and sometimes supports the political views of Russia’s new rich.Its journalists, however, are known in Russia for their continual struggle for freedom of opinion. And lastly, the paper with the most populist stance is the Izvestia (www.izvestia.ru), which sells around 263,000. English language publications include The Moscow Times (www.themoscowtimes.com), a daily, and The Russian Journal (www.russianjournal.com) a weekly.