On February 15, 2024, Dmitry Kiselev, director general of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent media group, has sent a request for an interview with US President Joe Biden in order to continue the dialogue between Russia and the United States after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson.
In the letter to White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre, Rossiya Segodnya director general Dmitry Kiselev wrote:
International Media group Rossiya Segodnya, the largest and most widely cited news agency in Russia, presents its compliments to you and has the honor to request an interview with His Excellency, Mr. Joseph Biden, President of the United States.
In this midst of an unprecedented crisis in Russia-US relations that presents risks of global confrontation, we would appreciate the opportunity to hear from President Biden his vision of how to stabilize the international situation, restore trust, and renew cooperation between the United States and Russia in order to address the key challenges of the 21st century.
Our agency is ready, on its part, to provide the President of the United States an opportunity to reach the widest possible Russian audience.
I – Dmitry Kiselev, director general of Rossiya Segodnya and host of Vesti Nedeli, the most watched Sunday night analytical news show in Russia on the most popular TV channel, Rossiya – I – intend to conduct the interview.
We also plan to translate the interview into various foreign languages and distribute it on numerous media platforms and social media accounts of the Agency both in Russia and around the world.
Meanwhile, Sputnik in a post on X said:
Dmitry Kiselev, director general of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent media group, has sent a request for an interview with Biden in order to continue the dialogue between Russia and the United States after Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson.
“We believe that our countries are now short of opportunities to listen to and hear each other and think that Russian President Vladimir Putin has set a worthy example by agreeing to an interview focused on an American audience”, the letter says.
The request has been sent to the White House in Washington, Kiselev said.
If Biden agrees, the interview is planned to be translated into foreign languages and distributed on the media group’s platforms around the world.
It may be mentioned here that Blitz, a newspaper publishing from Bangladesh with print and online edition for the last 21 years has content sharing arrangement with Sputnik News, Sputnik International and radio stations of the Russian broadcast network.
As a news agency, Sputnik produces newswire services that work around the clock in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Farsi. The agency covers global political and economic news targeting an international audience. The newswires produce 1,500 news items daily that are available to subscribers via the web terminal and mobile app.
Sputnik (Sputnʲɪk) – formerly Voice of Russia and RIA Novosti, naming derived from Russian ‘спутник’ satellite – is a Russian state-owned news agency and radio broadcast service. It was established by the Russian state-owned news agency – Rossiya Segodnya on November 10, 2014. With headquarters in Moscow, Sputnik maintains regional editorial offices in Washington DC, Cairo,
Beijing, Paris, Berlin, New Delhi, Madrid, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro.
Sputnik focuses on global politics and economics and aims for an international audience.
Sputnik is a modern news agency whose products include newsfeeds, websites, social networks, mobile apps, radio broadcasts and multimedia press centers.
Sputnik HQ is located in Moscow. Regional offices are located in key regions and countries around the world, including the United States (Washington, DC), China (Beijing), Egypt (Cairo).
Sputnik newswire services work around the clock in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Farsi.
The agency covers global political and economic news targeting an international audience.
The Sputnik brand was launched on November 10, 2014, by the Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya. Today, the editorial staff of Sputnik works in more than 30 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, etc.
The total volume of Sputnik’s radio broadcasts on websites and FM and DAB/DAB+ frequencies adds up to over 800 hours daily.
Agency photographers work all over the world and have repeatedly received prestigious international awards in the field of photojournalism, such as the World Press Photo and Magnum Photography Awards. The agency has its own photo database, called Sputnik Mediabank, through which it sells photo and video materials, as well as infographics.
Sputnik International’s predecessors are the state-run news agency RIA Novosti and the Voice of Russia radio service, which were disbanded in 2013.
