Dubai: After a 17-year hiatus from publishing in the Middle East, Anbaa Mosku — the Arabic edition of The Moscow News — is in circulation again across the region with the latest issues now hitting news stands in the UAE.
Svetlana Mironyuk, Editor-in-Chief of RIA Novosti, the Russian news agency that publishes the newspaper, said as many as 40,000 copies of Anbaa Mosku would be distributed bi-monthly across the UAE.
"The Anbaa Mosku is printed in Arabic only," Mironyuk told Gulf News.
"It is the Arabic language edition of the Moscow News. It is not available in Russian. The aim is to bring the unbiased and fresh news about Russia to the Arab audience."
Mironyuk said bringing Anbaa Mosku to the UAE was a strategic move, given the Emirates' importance in the Middle East.
"The UAE media market has strong leading positions in the Arab world, so it is very important for the Anbaa Mosku," she said. "The presentation of the newspaper in the UAE will let Anbaa Mosku stay closer to the readers of the newspaper in this country. The publication has plans to open [a] Dubai-based bureau in the future."
Anbaa Mosku stopped printing in the early ‘90s not long after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. It was resurrected regionally late last year, and company chiefs have been working to bring the newspaper back to life in the UAE.
Launch party
The official launch of the newspaper in the UAE is set for October 3 at Fairmont Dubai Hotel and will include Dubai business leaders and diplomats from Russia and the Middle East.
In a statement, RIA Novosti said its launch party would "also include an exhibit tracing the history of Anbaa Mosku since 1969, when the newspaper was established as an Arabic-language edition of The Moscow News".
The company said Anbaa Mosku is now "an independent newspaper distributed in 13 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, the UK [London] and Russia [Moscow], with a total monthly circulation of 190,100".
RIA Novosti said it published Anbaa Mosku with the support of Zurich's RJI Capital Services, AG.
According to a report on RIA Novosti's website, "Anbaa Mosku began in the Soviet Union which at that time cultivated close ties with the Arab world but printing stopped shortly after the collapse of the Communist regime in 1991. RIA Novosti resumed publication of the Arabic edition of The Moscow News in November 2009 after a 17-year break as part of the Russian government's strategy to step up relations with the Middle East."
According to the RIA Novosti report, Anbaa Mosku editor Raed Jaber said the "announcement of the newspaper's re-launch was met with widespread support both in Russia and in the Arab world which hope that it will contribute to the maintenance of strong political and economic ties of the old partners for many years to come".
