Архив за месяц: Сентябрь 2014

Analytics

Tired of Tajikistan’s Deplorable Schools, Parents Want Russian

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September 29, 2014

by Konstantin Parshin

Many parents in Tajikistan view the start of the school year with a bit of trepidation: while students wrestle with their lessons, adults must reach for their wallets. An increasing number are willing to spend sizable sums to get their kids into Russian-language classes.

Tajikistan’s constitution guarantees access to a free education for children. In reality, not-so-concealed bribery is part of the process. Parents are often required to contribute “voluntary fees” to public schools’ “development funds.” Principals establish their own rates. Though the fees can seem modest enough to be ignored – about $10 per month per child – it is difficult to get an explanation about where the money goes.

“Teachers’ beggarly wages create conditions for corruption in educational institutions, some of which have turned into trade fairs,” said economist Khojimuhammad Umarov. Classes are crowded, teachers often unqualified and – because they are dependent on informal payments from parents to survive – no longer respected, Umarov added.

A secondary-school teacher in Dushanbe told EurasiaNet.org that out of the $10 parents pay each month, he receives $2 per student in addition to his $160 salary. The rest, $8 per student, goes to the school principal. “Perhaps, some of it goes higher up the food chain,” he speculated. His school’s former principal, who used to take vacations to places like Turkey and Greece several times a year, was fired a couple of years ago.

By most accounts, the education system in Tajikistan is in a deplorable state. As they try to prepare their children for the future, concerned parents increasingly see Russian-language instruction as the best available option. Knowledge of Russian remains a vital skill. With few jobs available in Tajikistan, each year over a million people – perhaps one-half of working-age men – go to Russia to work.

The problem is that demand for Russian-language instruction in Tajikistan now outstrips the supply. According to Education Ministry statistics, fewer than 15 percent of students in Dushanbe are enrolled in Russian classes; far fewer attend schools where Russian is the primary language of instruction (in Dushanbe, only five out of several hundred schools). Outside the capital, access to Russian-language instruction is scarcer still.

Several parents confirmed to EurasiaNet.org that the unofficial “enrollment” fees at Russian-language schools, because they are considered superior, run as high as $2,000—a fortune in a country where the average monthly wage is about $200.

Registration is difficult. “One must have a reliable mediator, otherwise, nobody [in the school] will talk with you. Police [who are not trusted] won’t do anything. The system is bulletproof,” said a parent in Dushanbe.

At the Tajik-language school where journalist Zebo Tajibaeva sends her daughter, parents told her last month that during registration they paid between 600 and 1,000 somoni ($120 and $200) to enroll their children in beginner-level Russian-language classes. “Half the children in my daughter’s class speak no Russian at all. So, instead of learning, my daughter must watch how her classmates study Russian?”

Some fear that authorities are intent on squeezing out the few remaining Russian-language programs as part of an ongoing program to Tajikify the country — a nationalist push that parents say runs counter to the needs of their children.

On August 22, the Asia-Plus news agency provoked an impassioned debate when it reported that educational officials have recommended the five Russian schools in Dushanbe not enroll children from ethnically Tajik families. Officials denied the Education Ministry had issued such an order, but confirmed a recommendation does exist to ensure children who do not speak Russian at home do not experience problems.

Improving Russian-language education is critical for Tajikistan’s economic well-being, according to former education minister Munira Inoyatova, who now heads the Child Rights Center, a non-governmental organization. “The flow of migrants [to Russia] will not decrease in the near future. Migrants must have a working knowledge of Russian to be able to protect their rights and access better jobs,” Inoyatova told EurasiaNet.org. “There is a lack of textbooks in [Tajik]; terminology is not developed. […] In many Western countries, English is a second compulsory language. The Russian language should become the main second language within the [former USSR].”

Mikhail Petrushkov, the local representative of the World Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad (VKSRS), bemoaned the loss of the Russian language’s official status in Tajikistan back in 2009. “The growing population, the surplus of manpower along with a huge number of labor migrants in Russia must compel the Tajik authorities to seriously think about the quality of education. Without exaggeration, this is the matter of national security [for Tajikistan],” Petrushkov told EurasiaNet.org.

When Russian officials visit Tajikistan, their Tajik counterparts seem eager to expand Russian-language education. But rarely has that excitement translated into action. For example, when Valentina Matvienko, the chair of Russia’s Federation Council, visited Dushanbe in March, she offered to send Russian-language instructors. Shukurjon Zukhurov, speaker of the Tajik parliament’s lower chamber, indicated that the government would welcome the teachers.

“The Tajik people recall Russian teachers with deep respect and gratitude. They made a valuable contribution in the formation and development of the Tajik national education in Soviet times,” local media quoted Zukhurov as saying.

Six months have passed since Matvienko made the offer, and the program, like ones promised before it, appears to have stalled.

Editor’s note: Konstantin Parshin is a freelance writer based in Tajikistan

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/70211

 

Analytics

At Russian Business Daily ‘Vedomosti,’ Gloom Over New Media Legislation

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By Tom Balmforth

MOSCOW — It looked business as usual in the newsroom of the Russian daily «Vedomosti,» located in a converted furniture factory where the salmon pink walls match the signature color of the newspaper’s pages.

Some journalists chatted on mobile phones. Three employees huddled around a computer and shared a quiet joke. Others in the airy, open-plan hall typed with deadlines approaching.

But the mood here has soured this week.

Legislation that requires foreign-owned media like «Vedomosti» to shed all but 20 percent of their foreign ownership, purportedly to protect Russians from an «information war,» sailed through the State Duma on September 26 with almost unanimous support.

If passed by the upper house, the Federation Council, and signed by President Vladimir Putin, the bill means Russia’s top business daily will have to relinquish its Western ownership, which has been a guarantor of the paper’s editorial independence and inoculated it against murky Russian media practices.

«Everyone is, of course, dispirited,» says Tatyana Lysova, the newspaper’s editor in chief. «This bill itself is groundless, harmful, and demonstrates a mistrust of us. It, of course, creates uncertainty. We don’t know where our publication will be in a year and who it will belong to. In such circumstances, it is difficult to remain enthusiastic, hopeful, or positive.»

«Vedomosti,» which is 100 percent foreign-owned, is one of several media brands, including the Russian-language edition of «Forbes» and glossy magazines like «GQ,» that will have to close operations or be sold to Russian interests. The bill is purportedly designed to beef up national security but comes amid a broader clampdown on media and the Internet in Russia.

Lawmakers argue that the bill brings Russian media law in line with Western legislation and protects media consumers from foreign investors at a time when accusations of «fifth columnists» are increasingly on politicians’ lips.

But Lysova says the legislation is redundant as editorial independence from media owners is already enshrined in law.

«Our deputies should know the law better,» she says.

Since it was founded in 1999, «Vedomosti» has carved out a niche as one of the most reliable sources of information in Russia.

Lysova is disgusted at the insinuation by lawmakers that her newspaper could serve as a platform for propaganda.

«The very idea of considering media to be propaganda that we need to be protected from bears the wild stamp of the Cold War. Mass media doesn’t work like that,» she says.

Just this month, «Vedomosti» marked 15 years since it was founded as a joint venture between the «Financial Times,» «The Wall Street Journal,» and Sanoma Independent Media, the publishing house that founded «The Moscow Times.»

With its independent editorials, data-driven investigations, hard-hitting columns, and reputation for reliable business news in a shadowy media landscape, it quickly established itself as one of the most authoritative and reliable media brands in Russia.

This year, it has taken the lead on major stories, including the arrest of multibillionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov and the insider infighting for control of his Bashneft oil company, as well as on how the Kremlin is dipping into pension funds to keep the budget ticking over.

It has not shied away from critical opinion pieces, such as one penned by Andrei Zubov, a state university professor until he was subsequently fired,in which he likened the Kremlin’s Crimea grab in March to Nazi Germany’s Anschluss with Austria in 1938.

«Vedomosti» was sued successfully in August by Igor Sechin, the powerful CEO of Russia’s largest oil company, Rosneft, for an editorial in which it was ruled to have defamed him.

«Vedomsti’s» main rival is the «Kommersant» business daily that is owned by Alisher Usmanov, a well-connected multibillionaire.

Founded as a broadsheet, «Vedomosti» shrank to tabloid size in a bid to prop up and even grow its circulation of 75,000. The website averages 4 million visitors a month, Lysova says.

The new legislation threatening «Vedomosti» emerged amid a broader media shakeup that has accelerated during the Ukraine crisis and seen the Kremlin tighten its grip on information.

State agencies RIA Novosti and Voice of Russia were integrated under the Rossiya Segodnya brand, with pro-Kremlin pundit and TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov put at the helm.

The liberal-leaning television station Dozhd TV, or TV Rain, was forced off satellite and cable in February. That same month, the director of the radio station Ekho Moskvy was dismissed and replaced with a state media editor in a sign of pressure on its editorial policy.

Online, popular bloggers have to register with the state. Abroad, the Russian government has ramped up funding for the pro-Kremlin RT television station that has proved a key foreign policy tool for Russia.

In Lysova’s opinion, the Ukraine crisis and the rise of «national security» as an item on the political agenda have paved the way for stringent, repressive measures to be passed without discussion.

«It’s enough to say that it’s security and that you are trying to protect the motherland,» she says. «Anyone who protests is meant to seem against security. I don’t agree at all that the presence of foreign investors in mass media in some way threatens our security.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-new-media-legislation-western-owned-vedomosti/26608032.html

News

OSCE Condemns Death Threats Against Kosovar Journalist

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The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has condemned a series of death threats against Artan Haraqija, an RFE/RL journalist who has been reporting on radical Islamic groups in Kosovo.

Jean-Claude Schlumberger, the OSCE mission chief in Kosovo, called on September 18 for authorities in Pristina to bring to justice those who have threatened Haraqija and other journalists in Kosovo.

Haraqija, who also works for the Indeksonline website, received the latest in a series of death threats after appearing on a Kosovar TV program called “Rubikon” on September 16.

Haraqija worked on a joint report about Kosovo’s radical Muslims with “GazetaExpress” journalist Visar Duriqi, who also has received death threats for his work.

On September 17, police arrested 15 Muslim leaders across Kosovo for allegedly recruiting fighters for Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kosovo-journalist-threat-islamists/26593808.html

News

Producer At Russia’s Dozhd TV Attacked Ahead of Election

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The chief producer at independent Russian TV channel Dozhd (Rain) has been attacked, beaten, and robbed.

The internet and cable TV company says two unidentified men attacked Ksenia Batanova, who is also an anchor, near her apartment building in Moscow on September 12.

Dozhd says Batanova lost consciousness after several blows to the face and was hospitalized with a facial bone fracture and a concussion.

The attack came two days before Batanova, who is on a local election commission, was to work at a polling place during elections to the Moscow City Duma on September 14.

The attackers stole her mobile phone and earrings.

Moscow police said on September 15 that an investigation had been opened on suspicion of robbery.

Dozhd is often a platform for criticism of the Kremlin.

Based on reporting by tvrain.ru, Interfax and ITAR-TASS

http://www.rferl.org/content/batanova-dozhd-tv-attack-election-robbery-police/26584532.html

Analytics

Azerbaijan Tightens Screws On Civil Society, Independent Media

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By Robert Coalson

There is good news coming out of Azerbaijan these days. But much of it seems to be coming from the Twitter feed of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

«A free society has emerged in Azerbaijan. All democratic institutions are available and they operate successfully,» he wrote on September 1.

Followed moments later by: «All freedoms, including the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, the freedom of the press and free Internet, are available.»

And: «Azerbaijani society is a free society, and this is our great achievement.»

But if you dig a little deeper for your news about Azerbaijan, the picture is much bleaker. The European Stability Initiative, a Berlin-based think tank, recently issued a five-page report detailing what it calls «the most serious and brutal crackdown on civil society in Azerbaijan ever» since Baku assumed the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in May.

From the conviction and eight-year prison sentence handed down to journalist and activist Parviz Hashimli on May 15 to the brutal beating of journalist Ilgar Nasibov by unknown assailants on August 21, it is a depressing litany of arrests, detentions, searches, and court hearings of bloggers, journalists, and prominent activists.

Squeezing Out Independent Media

Mehman Aliyev is the head of the Turan information agency. He says that the crackdown is particularly severe because Azerbaijani society was already strictly repressed. «There were more media outlets in the past and when one or two was hit, it did not seem very dramatic,» he says.

«But now they have reduced the information space so dramatically that critical media are limited to just one or two outlets. The government is open about this. Apparently it’s in Azerbaijan’s national interest not to have critical media.»

Aliyev told RFE/RL on September 8 that he might be forced to close Turan, the country’s last remaining independent news agency.

Rahim Haciyev, first deputy editor in chief of the opposition «Azadliq» newspaper, tells a similar story. «The authorities believe the press should work under the guidance of official propaganda,» he says. «The government’s policies cannot be criticized.»

The most recent list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, published in June under the supervision of activist Leyla Yunus — who was arrested herself in July — includes 98 names.

Blaming ‘Foreign Forces’

The driving force behind the crackdown is Ramiz Mehdiyev, President Aliyev’s chief of staff. He held a closed-door meeting of government officials and pro-government media executives on August 29 at which he attacked independent and Western media for their coverage of Azerbaijan and, in particular, the conflict with Armenia over the de facto independent Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

He said the «main purpose» of nonstate media in Azerbaijan — including RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, the Voice of America, and the BBC — was «to discredit the state of Azerbaijan, to blacken its achievements, and to confuse the public by stressing groundless, fabricated issues.»

He said «foreign forces» use nongovernmental organizations and independent media to take advantage of «the tolerant and democratic environment in Azerbaijan» to disseminate «absurd lists of ‘political prisoners’; information about alleged violations of human rights; fabrications about pressure on civil-society organizations, media, and journalists; and exaggerations about the corruption problem in Azerbaijan.»

ALSO READ: Together A Lifetime, Activists Now Apart And In Jail

 

On September 5, Azerbaijani security forces raided the Baku office of IREX, a U.S.-funded nongovernmental organization that promotes democratic reforms around the globe. The organization’s bank accounts have been frozen, as have those of other international NGOs including Transparency International, Oxfam, and the National Democratic Institute.

At the same time, «The New York Times» on September 6 published an investigative report detailing how Baku uses its oil money to buy influence in Washington and «reinforce public opinion in the United States» that Azerbaijan is «an important security partner.»

Geopolitical Anxiety

The crackdown comes at a sensitive time for Baku as it pursues its policy of finding a middle course between an increasingly assertive Russia and the West.

«The government is frightened most by recent developments around the world, especially in the post-Soviet space,» says Baku-based political analyst Azer Gasimli. «Today the fate of Azerbaijan, to some extent, is being resolved on the battlefields of Ukraine. The West is preoccupied with the events in Ukraine and until that [conflict] is resolved, the U.S. and the West won’t get strict with Azerbaijan.»

Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kauzlarich agrees that Baku believes the West is distracted by Ukraine and the Middle East and could be using the opportunity «to complete the internal repression and eliminate foreign NGOs.»

In a written response to a query from RFE/RL, Kauzlarich also says Baku might be giving in to Russian pressure to distance itself from the West. Another possibility, he says, is that Baku could be reacting to pressure from Washington to negotiate a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict «rather than [impose] the Azerbaijan solution on Armenia.»

ALSO READ: Amid Karabakh Tensions, Both Yerevan And Baku Eye Russia Uneasily

http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-squeezes-civil-society-media/26574692.html

 

Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who hosts an evening talk show for RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, says she believes the crackdown is largely targeting individuals who would protest if President Aliyev begins to pursue closer relations with Russia or the nascent Moscow-led Eurasian Union.

Journalist Haciyev of «Azadliq» says Baku was scared during a recent spate of violence along the Line of Contact surrounding Karabakh and on the border with Armenia. «We saw then that citizens did not rely on information from official sources,» he says, making it difficult for Baku to control the narrative of the situation.

Next: ‘Death To Traitors’?

Now the crackdown seems to be gaining speed. On September 2, state media published an interview with parliament deputy Yagub Mahmudov, who is also the director of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences. Mahmudov called for the restoration of the death penalty for «traitors.»

«The death penalty should be imposed on such people,» Mahmudov said. «We should have capital punishment. Why should traitors be forgiven?»

Meanwhile, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele was in Baku on September 9 and promised 3 million euros ($5 million) in assistance to civil-society organizations. Activists, however, fear there is no one left at liberty in Azerbaijan to accept the gesture.

Written in Prague by Robert Coalson using reporting by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijan Service
News

Russian Photographer In Ukraine’s Fate Still Unclear, Despite Cryptic ‘RIP’ Tweet

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UPDATE: The Russian media conglomerate Rossiya Segodnya has confirmed that photographer Andrei Stenin is dead, saying in a statement that medical experts had concluded a body found in a burned vehicle outside Donestk was that of Stenin.

The fate of a Russian photographer who disappeared nearly a month ago in eastern Ukraine remains a mystery despite scattered claims that DNA testing confirmed Andrei Stenin was dead.

A fellow Russian photojournalist claimed on September 2 that Stenin’s remains have been identified, after he disappeared while covering fighting between pro-Kyiv and pro-Russian forces.

Another report, on the Russian FlashNord website, quoted the separatist «Donetsk People’s Republic» as saying genetic tests had confirmed that remains found more than a week ago were Stenin’s.

But Stenin’s employers at news agency Rossiya Segodnya (also known as RIA Novosti) said they had no confirmation of Stenin’s death. «We are awaiting the final results of genetic testing in the near future,» Rossiya Segodnya Director-General Dmitry Kiselyov was quoted as saying.

The case has particularly alarmed Russians and international observers due to suggestions — including by a Ukrainian official — that Stenin, who was on assignment at the time, had been taken into custody by Ukrainian security forces.

Russian colleague and self-described «good friend» Vasily Maksimov (@vasilymaximov) announced Stenin’s purported death via Twitter.

«Andrei Stenin’s remains identified, it seems,» Maksimov said. «RIA will soon let you know. Unfortunately, I no longer doubted this outcome. RIP.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/stenin-ukraine-russia-journalist/26563187.html

News

IS Militants Behead Second U.S. Journalist

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Islamic State (IS) militants have released a video showing the beheading of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and warns governments not to ally with the United States in its fight against the group.

The video, which emerged on September 2, shows Sotloff dressed in orange and on his knees in a desert landscape. A masked militant condemns U.S. attacks on IS, which has been targeted in air strikes in northern Iraq, and cuts the captive’s throat.

Coming two weeks after IS issued a similiar video showing the beheading of another American journalist, James Foley, the video at once underscores the risks of U.S. involvement in battling Islamic State militants and increases pressure on President Barack Obama to step up action against them.

The U.S. National Security Council said on September 3 that it has determined that the video is authentic.

The confirmation came in a statement by National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Sotloff’s killing a «horrific act of violence» and warned Islamic State militants that the reach of the United States is long and that «justice will be served.»

British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the beheading as an «absolutely disgusting, despicable act.»

After the beheading, the militant in the latest video introduces a second captive, identified as David Haines and said to be British, and warns governments to stay out of «this evil alliance with America.»

Sotloff had worked for the magazine «Time,» as well as «The National Interest» and «Foreign Policy.»

His mother made a video on August 27 urging IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to release him.

«The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time,» a spokesman for Sotloff’s family, Barak Barfi, said after the release of the video.

In the video showing the killing of Foley, which was released on August 20, a masked man warned U.S. officials that Sotloff would be killed next if Washington did not end air strikes against IS militants in Iraq.

The United States has recently carried out dozens of air strikes against IS targets in Iraq.

The group and its allies control large parts of northern and western Iraq after entering the country at the start of this year from areas in northeastern Syria.

In a report released earlier on September 2, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said IS militants were guilty of «systematic ethnic cleansing» in northern Iraq.

The report cites «hair-raising» accounts from survivors of massacres that Amnesty said shows IS fighters have committed «war crimes.»

The report said, «The massacres and abductions being carried out by the Islamic State provide harrowing new evidence that a wave of ethnic cleansing against minorities is sweeping across northern Iraq.»

The report said just in the two villages of Qiniyeh on August 3 and Kocho on August 15 «the number of those killed…runs into the hundreds.»

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-sotloff-beheading/26563370.html

Analytics

ITAR-TASS Looks Ahead By Traveling Back To Soviet-Era Name

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By Charles Recknagel

The Soviet Union’s state news agency TASS was once so closely identified with the Kremlin that it reserved a special phrase to use whenever it related official news to the Soviet people.

The phrase was «TASS is authorized to announce,» and it prefaced the Kremlin’s statements on everything from Cold War diplomatic crises to the progress of economic five-year plans. By stressing the agency’s special authorization, TASS — an acronym for the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union — maintained that whatever other accounts the Soviet audience might hear or read, this was the only approved, and therefore, accurate one.

Its signature phrase fell out of use when, after the collapse of communism, the state news agency changed its name to ITAR-TASS — ITAR being an acronym for Information Telegraph Agency of Russia. In the spirit of the changing times, the agency was seeking to emphasize the independence of its reporting, though it remained a state news agency.

But now, ITAR-TASS is again adopting its Soviet-era acronym of simply TASS in a step it says will strengthen its image. The name change is expected to be phased in through the end of the year.

Announcing the change on the occasion of the agency’s 110th anniversary on September 1, Director-General Sergei Mikhailov told staff in Moscow that «the decision was made to return to the historic and globally recognized name of TASS.»

He did not say precisely why the change was necessary but argued that the current media market, with its huge quantity of information from varied sources, does not provide a full and accurate picture of events. He said providing an «accurate» picture would be the agency’s main task.

The back-to-the-future branding choice strikes some observers as odd.

The intention of changing the name was to bring a kind of credibility to the old name of the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, because the name was empty of any credibility.»
— Jefim Fistein

Jefim Fistein, a Russian-Czech commentator and former director of RFE/RL’s Russian Service, says that in 1992 the acronym ITAR was coupled to TASS in an effort to win the public’s trust.

«The intention of changing the name was to bring a kind of credibility to the old name of the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, because the name was empty of any credibility,» he says.

TASS lost its credibility by being the mouthpiece for official Soviet versions of events that were patently contradicted by history, Fistein notes. That included announcing in 1968 that the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia was in response to a counter-revolution.

As ITAR-TASS now returns to its Soviet-era acronym, the real reasons behind the change may be less about the pros and cons of choosing a specific brand name than about the Kremlin’s own ongoing efforts to highlight Russia’s Soviet past.

The move echoes similar steps by Russian President Vladimir Putin, including bringing back the Soviet national anthem, reviving Soviet-style military parades, and restoring a Stalin-era labor award.

Fistein says Putin’s stoking of nostalgia for the Soviet era has had considerable success in helping isolate his Western-leaning opposition, encouraging him to go further.

«For many people now, the Soviet past, paradoxically, reflects the happy future of present-day Russia,» he observes. «They don’t expect a happy future to come in the form of modernization or in the form of approaching the Westernized world. For them, the future lies in the Soviet past of Russia.»

At the same time, rebranding the news agency is in line with steps by the Kremlin to bring other state-owned media assets more visibly under its control.

In December, Putin ordered the closure of the RIA Novosti news agency and Voice of Russia radio, with both to be absorbed into a new media conglomerate called Rossiya Segodnya.

Sergei Ivanov, the head of Russia’s presidential administration, said upon announcing the reorganization that Russia «must tell the truth and make it accessible to as any people as possible» as Russia holds «an independent policy and unwaveringly protects its national interests.»

The name change is just one of many ITAR-TASS has undergone over the course of its 110-year history, all of them reflecting the spirit of the times.

The agency dates back to 1904 when tsarist Russia was at war with Japan and needed rapid news from the battlefield. Its first name was the Saint Petersburg Telegraph Agency (SPTA).

However, it was soon renamed. Seized by the Bolsheviks at the start of the Russian Revolution, it became the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) in 1918 and, in 1925, the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS). Then, in 1992, it acquired the additional acronym ITAR before losing it again this week.

At its height, TASS was known across the globe as the Soviet Union’s leading news agency, with bureaus in some 90 countries. Today it is smaller, with bureaus in 70 countries, but remains one of the world’s largest news agencies.

http://www.rferl.org/content/itar-tass-rebranding-soviet-union/26563237.html