Lenta.ru

Lenta.ru (; stylised as LƐNTA.RU) is a Russian-language online newspaper. Based in Moscow, it is owned by Rambler Media Group. In 2013, the Alexander Mamut-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 and Gleb Pavlovsky 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 2010 study found it to be the most cited news source in the Russian blogosphere.

In 2013, Alexander Mamut through his ownership of the Afisha-Rambler-SUP Group acquired Lenta.ru.

In 2013, Lenta.ru was ranked by comScore-study the 5th in terms of traffic among European news websites (in all languages).

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 of  from the Right Sector's Kyiv branch, Roskomnadzor immediately issued a press release on March 12, 2014, which accused Lenta.ru of 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 the article contained a link to Dmytro Yarosh's March 1, 2014 appeal. Since the warning by Roskomnadzor was the second issued in a 12-month period, Roskomnadzor could ask the courts to terminate Lenta.ru's mass media license. Both the BBC and The Economist labeled Russia's response to Lenta.ru as censorship.

Firing of Timchenko
On March 12, 2014 the owner, Alexander Mamut, fired the Editor-in-Chief Galina Timchenko 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, 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.

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, 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.

Chief editors 
 Anton Nosik (1999–2004)
 Galina Timchenko (2004–2014)
 Alexey Goreslavsky (2014–2016)
 Alexander Belonovsky (2016–2017)
 Vladimir Todorov (since 2017)

Management
Director-general: Andrey Solomennik
Editor-in-Chief: Vladimir Todorov
Programmer: Maksim Moshkow (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 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
 

Internet properties established in 1999
News agencies based in Russia
Russian news websites
Mass media in Moscow
1999 establishments in Russia
Government-owned companies of Russia
Russian propaganda organizations
Conspiracist media