Russian Prime Minister Putin visits RIA Novosti

Putin toured the agency following a meeting of the presidential council on sports development and arrangements for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which was held at the Sochi-2014 information center, established jointly by RIA Novosti and the Sochi-2014 organizing committee.

RIA Novosti Editor-in-Chief Svetlana Mironyuk gave Putin a guided tour of the agency's two-floor multimedia newsroom, the only one of its kind in Russia, which was inaugurated in January 2008.

The 1,100-square-meter newsroom houses the Integrated News Department, providing multi-format coverage of events with traditional text, video and infographic presentation of news, opinion and entertainment. The concept behind the newsroom is to help the department's 300 journalists and editors improve their efficiency through prompt exchange of information, better planning and tight coordination.

The scope and variety of information attract different user categories, Mironyuk said. Some multimedia stories on RIA Novosti website are viewed by up to 500,000 people daily.

"Interesting, very convenient," Putin said.

The prime minister also visited the TV studio of RIA Novosti.

RIA Novosti has bureaus and correspondents in 50 Russian cities and over 40 foreign countries, including the CIS and the Baltic States. RIA Novosti's main website www.rian.ru and foreign-language news portals have more than 5.5 million visitors per month.

Putin also visited the offices of the "The Moscow News" English-language newspaper and Russia's first 24-hour English-language news channel, Russia Today, located in the same building.