91Èȱ¬

On Saturday 26 March, the 91Èȱ¬ Russian live weekend programme, Pyatiy Etazh (Fifth Floor), broadcasts from the studio in Bush House, London, for the last time. Airing at 18.30 GMT (21.30 Moscow time), the final programme signals the end of the 91Èȱ¬'s 65-year history of traditional radio broadcasting in Russian.

In a week of special programming in the run-up to this milestone date, 91Èȱ¬ Russian is featuring special multimedia content, looking back at the radio journalism that has made the 91Èȱ¬ a household name, from Vilnius to Vladivostok, and also looking at future shape of media.

Head of 91Èȱ¬ Russian, Sarah Gibson, says: "This is a sad time for all of us at 91Èȱ¬ Russian. We are also proud of the unique heritage our broadcasts have left behind – in the hearts and minds of millions of radio listeners. As we move on, we will continue to serve our audiences through online and mobile services. Our website bbcrussian.com will continue to bring global stories to the Russian audience, and put Russian stories in a global context."

The 91Èȱ¬ started regular Russian-language broadcasts to the Soviet Union on 24 March 1946. Throughout the years, the 91Èȱ¬ radio brought independent news and analysis to Russian-speaking audiences. In its special programming, 91Èȱ¬ Russian looks again at the key stories it has covered – reporting the cold war and the perestroika, the attempted putsch of August 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two Chechen wars and Beslan, the Russia-Georgia conflict and everything else that has mattered to its audiences in the region.

Highlights from the 65 years of broadcasting also include the 91Èȱ¬ voices that have been well known to listeners, ground-breaking interactive interviews with Margaret Thatcher and Paul McCartney, both speaking to audiences in the Soviet Union, as well as unique archive material such as Joseph Brodsky's first radio interview, hours after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987.

Key Russian media, political and business personalities share their views of the 91Èȱ¬'s work over the years – including the businessman and owner of The Independent, Alexander Lebedev, leading Russian journalists such as Yevgeniy Kiselyov, Dmitriy Muratov, Leonid Parfyonov, Vladimir Pozner and Mikhail Rykhlin, human-rights activist Lev Ponomaryov, writer Dmitriy Bykov, and President of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow Sate University, Yasen Zassurskiy.

The 91Èȱ¬ looks at what its broadcasts to the Soviet Union, and then to Russia and other post-Soviet states, meant for the people in those countries, and its influence. Putting its work in the wider context of foreign broadcasting, 91Èȱ¬ Russian also looks at how the Western views of the importance of broadcasting to the USSR and post-Soviet states changed over the years, and what these changes mean for politics and the media in Russia. Another focus looks at how the media in Russia is changing, the role the internet is playing in the current media landscape, and the rapid changes in media consumption.

The 91Èȱ¬ is closing three of its Russian-language radio programmes – Ranniy Chas (Dawn), Utro na Bi-bi-si (Morning with the 91Èȱ¬) and Vecher na Bi-bi-si (Evening with the 91Èȱ¬). However, 91Èȱ¬ Russian will continue to produce BBSeva, Vam Slovo and Pyatiy Etazh which will be available for listening via the website bbcrussian.com as well as for FM partners outside Russia.

91Èȱ¬ World Service is also stopping its short- and medium-wave broadcasts to Russia in English.

World Service Publicity