Russia — news channels live

This is the BBC's Russian service. As one of the World Service's broadcasts in more than forty languages, it delivers news to a Russian-speaking audience produced to the editorial standards of British public broadcasting.

Its output is blocked inside Russia, and the BBC has continued to use various technical routes to reach audiences past that censorship. Being part of a licence-fee-funded institution is the principal factor keeping the service clear of commercial and governmental pressure.

This is Deutsche Welle's Russian service. As Germany's international public broadcaster, DW's remit includes carrying independent news in local languages into countries under authoritarian government, and the Russian service is one of the largest instances of that work.

DW's Moscow bureau was closed in 2022 and its output blocked inside the country; the service continues from Germany. It carries the European agenda and developments in Germany directly to a Russian-speaking audience.

RTVI is a Russian-language international television channel. Its audience is largely Russian-speaking communities living outside Russia, which produces a schedule not confined to Russian domestic politics.

Its output is built around bulletins, interviews and discussion programming.

The Insider is a Russian-language publication focused on investigative journalism. It is known for investigations conducted with open-source intelligence methods and has published joint files with international research organisations such as Bellingcat.

What distinguishes it is a method resting on documentary and data evidence: verification work built on flight records, telephone data, corporate registries and leaked documents forms the spine of its files.

The organisation has been placed under restrictive designations in Russia and continues to publish from abroad.

Nastoyashchee Vremya — Current Time — is a Russian-language international news service run by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in cooperation with Voice of America and funded by the United States.

It addresses not only Russia but the whole region where Russian is widely spoken: Russian-speaking audiences in Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Baltic states and Ukraine are part of its remit. That gives its agenda a shape distinctly different from Moscow-centred channels.

Readers are best placed watching with the public funding in mind; the organisation's editorial independence is protected in statute, but the source of funding is relevant information in weighing its output.

Populyarnaya Politika was established as a publishing venture connected to opposition politics in Russia and operates natively on YouTube rather than as a television channel; its format — live streams, interviews and current-affairs discussion — was designed for the platform.

Its identity is explicitly oppositional and it does not disguise it. For a reader who wants the side of Russian political argument that sits outside state television, it is a direct source; equally, it should be read knowing it is the voice of one side.

TV Rain — Dozhd in Russian — was founded in 2010 by Natalya Sindeyeva as an independent television channel. At the time it was one of very few examples of non-state television journalism in Russia and became known for carrying opposition protests, investigations and open debate.

Over the years it faced removal from cable operators, loss of premises and financial pressure; in 2022 it was forced to end its broadcasts inside Russia and most of its staff left the country. It has continued to publish from abroad.

It is today among the Russian-language independent channels reaching the widest audience on YouTube. Its schedule is built around bulletins, long interviews and discussion programming.