TASS

Russian News Agency TASS (Russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, romanized: Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii TASS), abbreviated TASS (ТАСС), is a major news agency in Russia founded in 1904. TASS is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide, along with Reuters, the Associated Press (AP) and Agence France-Presse (AFP).[1] TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterprise, owned by the Government of Russia.[2] Headquartered in Moscow, TASS has 70 offices in Russia and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as well as 68 bureaus around the world. In Soviet times, it was named the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Телегра́фное аге́нтство Сове́тского Сою́за, Telegrafnoye agentstvo Sovetskogo Soyuza) and was the central agency for news collection and distribution for all Soviet newspapers, radio and television stations. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the agency was renamed Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR-TASS) (Информацио́нное телегра́фное аге́нтство Росси́и (ИТА́Р-ТАСС), Informatsionnoye telegrafnoye agentstvo Rossii (ITAR-TASS)) in 1992, but regained the simpler TASS name in 2014.[3]