Izvestia

Izvestia
Известия
	Front page of the Izvestia newspaper from 15 June 2012
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	National Media Group
Publisher	Inews (News Media)
Editor-in-chief	Arseniy Ogenesyan
Founded	13 March 1917; 107 years ago
Language	Russian
Headquarters	Begovoy District, Moscow, Russia
Circulation	234,500
ISSN	0233-4356
OCLC number	427395058
Website	iz.ru

Izvestia (Russian: Известия, IPA: [ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə], "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, Izvestia, which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, disseminating official state propaganda.^[2] It is now described as a "national newspaper" of Russia.

The word izvestiya in Russian means "bring news" or "tidings", "herald" (an official messenger bringing news), derived from the verb izveshchat ("to inform", "to notify").^{[citation needed]}

History

1917–1991

During the Soviet period, while Pravda served as the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, Izvestia expressed the official views of the Soviet government as published by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.^[3] Its full name was Izvestija Sovjetov Narodnyh Djeputatov SSSR (in Russian, Известия Советов народных депутатов СССР, the Reports of Soviets of Peoples' Deputies of the USSR).

The Izvestia Trophy ice hockey tournament was named after the newspaper between 1969 and 1996.

Nedelya was the weekend supplement of Izvestia.^[4]^[5]

1992–present

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Izvestia now describes itself as a "national newspaper" of Russia. The newspaper was owned by a vast holding company of Vladimir Potanin which had close ties with the government.^{[citation needed]} A controlling stake in Izvestia was purchased by state-owned Gazprom on 3 June 2005, and included in the Gazprom Media holding.^{[citation needed]} According to the allegations of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Raf Shakirov, editor-in-chief of Izvestia, was forced to resign because the government officials did not like the paper's coverage of the Beslan school hostage crisis.^[6]^[7] Other sources informed that Potanin had asked him to leave for fear the Kremlin would be riled by the explicit photographs of the massacre published by Izvestia.^{[citation needed]} As of 2005, the circulation of Izvestia was 240,967. Its 2007 circulation certified by TNS Gallup Media was 371,000 copies.^[8] Until his death on 1 October 2008, the chief artist was Boris Yefimov, the centenarian illustrator who had worked as Joseph Stalin's political cartoonist.