Rossiya Segodnya (今日俄羅斯國際通訊社) is a Russian state media group established after Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree on December 9, 2013, ordering the liquidation of the state news agency RIA Novosti and the state broadcaster Voice of Russia and folding their staff and assets into the new entity. RIA Novosti itself traced its lineage to the Soviet Information Bureau, founded in 1941, though Rossiya Segodnya was created as a distinct entity by the 2013 decree, not a continuation of it. Putin’s chief of staff said the restructuring was meant to improve cost efficiency in state media, while RIA Novosti’s own reporting at the time suggested it reflected tightening Kremlin control over the media sector. The group’s outlets include Sputnik, its international multimedia brand publishing in 32 languages and broadcasting in 19 countries; RIA Novosti, which continues to operate as its Russian-language domestic wire service; Prime, a business and financial news wire; and Arctic.ru, a bilingual Russian-English outlet covering Arctic infrastructure, resource development, and indigenous culture that reports roughly 60 percent of its readership from outside Russia.