Is Pravda a pro-Kremlin tabloid?

In her article titled 'Russophobia in action': Russian socialites and influencers irate after being barred from purchasing Chanel goods, Cheryl Teh, a senior breaking news reporter based in Insider's Singapore bureau indicated that Pravda was a pro-Kremlin tabloid. This article, which was not fact-checked, appeared on Yahoo! pages.

The reality is that Pravda has never been a tabloid

We are the first professional online publication in Russia. We went online on January 27, 1999. Pravda.Ru was founded bu authoritative journalists of the Pravda newspaper, who could not accept both the arrival of a foreign investor in the newspaper and its editorial policy in support of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The Pravda.Ru team believed and still believes that the publication should be exempt from party interests and big business, whatever its origin might be. From the first day of its foundation, Pravda.Ru has been covering a wide range of topics related to the issues of quality press: international and domestic politics, cultural, scientific and social issues.

If the above-mentioned topics make Pravda.Ru a tabloid, as the Insider claims, then this may only speak of the level of journalism that people like Cheryl Teh have, let alone their inability to verify facts. 

To which extent can Pravda.Ru be a pro-Kremlin publication?

The 'pro' prefix indicates one's determination to defend the interests of certain groups.
Can a publication that openly criticizes the policy of the government a pro-government one?

The Russian version of Pravda.Ru was one of those publications that consistently criticized the pension reform in Russia, as well as some other economic actions taken by the authorities. To crown it all our publication published John McCain's op-ed, in which he addressed the people of Russia. 

During the recent years, Pravda.Ru has received a dozen of administrative fines from government regulator Roskomnadzor, including for activities that Russia's state-run publications can run freely.

We freely publish Pravda.Ru in Russia in accordance with country's legislation. We inform our readers about what we think is important. We criticize the authorities when we deem it necessary, and we support them when we believe that certain actions are taken for the good of Russia.

There are many state-owned publications in Russia, and the editorial policy of some of them is coordinated directly from the office of the presidential administration. We do not belong to either of those publications. Pravda.Ru is published by and managed by a privately-owned company.

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