Russia has built its own version of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. According to Reuters, the online platform was officially opened on Monday.
The “Russian Wikipedia” or Ruwiki has opened. The encyclopedia has been characterized as sympathetic to President Vladimir Putin’s regime. All Over Press
News agency quoting Russian media Reuters According to Russia’s own Wikipedia, Ruwikihas opened its doors on Monday.
According to the financial newspaper Kommersant, Ruwiki has been in beta testing since the summer. The newspaper says that Ruwiki already has more content than the Russian-language Wikipedia, which has about two million articles.
The newspaper Izvestija, on the other hand, reported on Ruwiki’s most popular articles last week during the beta testing of the platform. According to Izvestija, users searched for information especially about the deaths that happened last year, Russia’s “military operation” in Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the country’s most popular movies.
The Ruwiki project has been managed Vladimir Medeyko, who is said to have been actively contributing content to the Russian-language Wikipedia since 2003. Ruwiki’s content is mostly copied from the Russian-language Wikipedia. However, many articles have been edited.
The Ruwiki encyclopedia has been characterized as president Vladimir Putin to sympathize with the administration. Bloomberg’s according to Medeyko himself has described the new encyclopedia as neutral, but to comply with Russian laws.
Even Wikipedia still works
According to Reuters, Wikipedia is one of the few independent sources of information that are still freely available in Russia. Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites in the country with nearly 100 million monthly visitors.
Russia has previously said that it is not planning to ban Wikipedia. However, Bloomberg estimated last summer that the establishment of Ruwiki could portend a change in the matter.
Russia has imposed numerous fines on Wikipedia for, among other things, articles about the war in Ukraine.
According to Bloomberg, Wikipedia played an important role in the dissemination of information during the Wagner group’s rebellion last summer.
Real-time information about the events and the group’s movements was scarcely, if at all, available in the Russian media. However, Russian Wikipedia content producers actively updated the events in the encyclopedia.