The British Broadcasting Corporation BBC is the world's leading public information media organization.
Its journalists create world-class content every day; content that informs, educates and entertains millions of people in the UK and around the world. This is the BBC's job. At the same time, we must remain impartial and objective.
The BBC Russian Service is part of the BBC World Service, which operates in 42 languages (as of 2023): from Azerbaijani to Amharic, from Arabic to Japanese.
The BBC Russian Service also has its own channels on social networks: Facebook, Instagram, OK.ru, Telegram, Twitter and VKontakte. Access to some of them is blocked by the Russian authorities.
Millions of people around the world learn English from lessons provided free of charge by one of the BBC World Service's divisions, BBC Learning English.
The BBC's international news audience numbers 438 million (2020). This figure, in addition to the BBC World Service audience, includes viewers of the BBC World News channel and users of the website bbc.com/news.
A little about the Russian service
The website of the BBC Russian Service - bbc.com/russian (bbcrussian.com) - was launched in January 1998.
The Russian Service's team of journalists mainly works at Broadcasting House, the BBC's headquarters in London.
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We also have offices in Baku, Bishkek, Washington, Jerusalem, Kyiv, Riga, Tbilisi and other cities.
Before the start of Russia's war in Ukraine, a large group of journalists worked at the BBC's Moscow bureau. However, due to pressure from the Russian authorities, our journalists had to move to Riga.
While almost all published material is created by Russian Service journalists, the site also publishes articles by staff from other BBC services or by guest authors.
Correspondents of the BBC Russian Service regularly appear on air, on websites and other digital platforms of various BBC divisions, explaining or commenting on events in Russia and other post-Soviet countries, as well as explaining the impact of various world events and trends on them.
Along with materials from news feeds of the world's leading news agencies, the BBC Russian Service also uses materials from a specialized division of international news services - BBC Monitoring.
Providing important information about the work of the media around the world, BBC Monitoring helps to understand what is happening in the world by tracking events through the media and other open sources.
Highly experienced regional teams monitor, translate and analyze local sources, including television, radio, newspapers, online and social media - especially in parts of the world where reliable news and information is scarce - and help identify fake information and disinformation.
How the BBC works
Now about how the BBC works within the UK. The BBC broadcasts on several television channels in the United Kingdom, with BBC One being the most popular among viewers and another first of its kind being the online youth channel BBC Three.
The BBC's children's channels, as well as local stations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, have won national awards for broadcast journalism. BBC Radio broadcasts on 10 national channels in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, as well as 39 local radio stations in England.
It is governed by the BBC under the Royal Charter and is funded through a special license - an annual fee charged to households in the UK.
While the BBC World Service is also funded by these license fees, in 2016 the UK government gave the World Service a grant of £291 million.
With this funding, the BBC World Service has undertaken its biggest expansion since the 1940s to make independent journalism accessible to millions of people around the world, including in countries where independent news is scarce.
If you look at BBC websites outside the UK - or watch BBC World News - you'll probably notice the adverts. Its placement is permitted for foreign audiences, while within the UK the BBC cannot carry commercial advertising.
The license fee is supplemented by income from the BBC's commercial subsidiaries - BBC Studios (the BBC's award-winning production company and world-class distributor), BBC Global News (comprising the international news channel BBC World News and the international news site bbc.com/news) and BBC Studioworks (a provider of television studios and equipment, offering world-class creative and technical solutions to the media industry).
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