MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian media magnate Alexander Lebedev said he planned to launch an online Russian-language edition of British newspaper The Independent starting this month, Russia’s RBC media portal reported on Tuesday.
Lebedev, the financial backer of The Independent and London’s Evening Standard newspaper, provided no specific date for the launch.
The editor overseeing the project, Artem Artemov, told RBC that the new Russian edition would consist exclusively of Russian translations of The Independent’s articles and, like the British newspaper, would be available only online.
He said the Russian edition had been running a test website since February, which will be made available to the public within the next two weeks.
The Independent, a left-leaning newspaper, was launched in 1986 to challenge established publications such as the Daily Telegraph, the Times and the Guardian.
(Reporting by Anton Zverev; Writing by Gabrielle Ttrault-Farber; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
