RT

RT, formerly Russia Today, is a Russian state-funded international television network and news website broadcasting in several languages, including English. It presents Russian government perspectives on world affairs to international audiences and has been widely criticised in Western countries as a vehicle for state messaging and propaganda.

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RT at a glance

Country: Russia
Region: Central and Eastern Europe · Europe
Kind of outlet: Television news channel
Editorial leaning: Right-leaning
Founded: 2005
Ownership: Funded by the Russian state through ANO TV-Novosti
Published from: Moscow
Website: rt.com ↗
Preview: Renders inside Crosswire's comparison panes (last checked 2026-10-12).

Founding, ownership and location are directory records without individual source citations here. Ownership can change; verify these details with the publisher before quoting them. The preview status comes from the weekly audit that requests every outlet through Crosswire's own edge — see how the fetcher identifies itself.

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How Crosswire groups RT

Crosswire groups RT as Right-leaning for comparisons within Russia's directory. This is an approximate Crosswire label, not a verified rating of its individual articles or a claim that every journalist shares one position. In Russia, Meduza is listed as Left-leaning, while Kommersant and Moskovsky Komsomolets are listed as Centrist — so you can open RT beside a title of a different orientation and compare the same day's front pages directly.

Compare RT with another outlet from Russia covering the same event and edition. Record the headline, publication time, named sources and links to original evidence. Similar leaning labels can still produce different coverage; a different label does not guarantee an independent source. Check the articles before interpreting a front-page difference as bias.

This is an approximate orientation, not a definitive judgement — and not a rating of quality or accuracy. Read how Crosswire classifies editorial leanings. This profile does not include an individual assessment citation. Page updated 2026-09-28; this is a content-change date, not a fresh fact-check of the outlet. Think this label is wrong? Suggest a correction.

Where RT sits in Russia's press

RT was founded in 2005, is published from Moscow and is funded by the Russian state through ANO TV-Novosti. It is one of 6 outlets tracked in Russia and the only television news channel tracked there. By outlets tracked, Russia ranks 25th of the 45 countries on Crosswire's Europe hub, which lists 264 outlets in all.

Across Europe, Crosswire tracks 14 of the 66 television news channels in the directory. The nearest counterparts to RT outside Russia, starting with Central and Eastern Europe, are TVN24 (Poland), Digi24 (Romania), Belsat (Belarus) and Sky News (United Kingdom). Opening one of them beside RT is the quickest way to see what is a house style and what is a national one.