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The website of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Russian - bbcrussian.com - and GZT.RU, one of Russia's top ten online news portals, today announce a new agreement that will enable international news seekers to access a variety of Russian-language video content from bbcrussian.com, direct from the GZT.RU website.

The deal with the online news portal will make ´óÏó´«Ã½ video and text content available to a new audience of 1.6 million users per week.

Visitors to GZT.RU now have access to bbcrussian.com video and text content, updated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across genres including news, current affairs, sports, the arts, business, entertainment and technology. All videos will carry bbcrussian.com branding.

Sarah Gibson, Head of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Russian, says: "Our ambition is to build on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Russian's well-established direct online audience through partnerships with highly-regarded online sites. Our global perspective makes us a unique resource for news consumers in Russia, and this is another way for them to access ´óÏó´«Ã½ news and analysis. We see Russian audiences turn to us on big stories, including Russian and regional ones, and we are really pleased to have another way through this partnership to make our content more accessible."

Sarah Jones, Head of Business Development, Europe, at ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service, says: "The partnership with GZT.RU is an exciting one. It means that regular visitors to the site have instant, easy access to bbcrussian.com video content and text stories. We are committed in extending the reach of our content and delivering to audiences the best of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s international news, with real depth and breadth."

Pavel Sukhov, Editor-in-Chief of GZT.RU, says: "The editorial team of GZT.RU highly values the results of the joint project for the placement of video clips and text produced by ´óÏó´«Ã½ Russian. GZT.RU endeavours to provide its visitors with a multi-dimensional daily news picture, and an important element of this is the professional video from ´óÏó´«Ã½. Each month tens of thousands of views of the video on our portal demonstrate the huge interest amongst the audience for this offer. We hope to widen the area of our cooperation with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in the future."

Content from bbcrussian.com can be accessed at GZT.RU from today, Tuesday 31 August.

Notes to Editors

´óÏó´«Ã½ Russian is a multimedia broadcaster offering radio, online and mobile content to Russian-speaking audiences, with up-to-the-minute news, features and analysis. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Russian radio programmes are streamed online via bbcrussian.com and are broadcast on shortwave, on medium wave in Moscow (1260 MW), St Petersburg (1260 MW) and Yekaterinburg (666 MW). They are also available direct to home via the Hotbird 2 satellite. The 24/7 website, bbcrussian.com, offers news and information in text, audio and video, while the latest headlines and video news bulletins are available for download on mobile phones via bbcrussian.com/mobile.

World Service Publicity