Portuguese Version of PRAVDA.Ru celebrates second birthday

10th September 2004 is the second anniversary of the Portuguese Version of Pravda.Ru.
We are proud to announce that we have been read by over a million people.

However, this is just the beginning. With some 300 million speakers of Portuguese, we still have a long way to go, forging a bridge between the two communities, namely the Russian-speaking and Portuguese-speaking worlds.

We now have an active and participative readership in Brazil, where most of our readers live, Portugal and Angola, with smaller communities of readers, respectively, in Mozambique, Canada, the USA, France, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe Isles, East Timor and Guinea-Bissau, figures which reflect the size of the communities.

We must mention the great interest shown in Pravda.Ru by our readers, and we are happy to receive dozens of e-mails every day asking questions about the Russian Federation, its political and economic situation and also about culture, tourism and sports.

We received a great many letters and messages of solidarity after the shocking act of butchery by those unclassifiable creatures in Beslan and we felt the shock and the disbelief in the Portuguese-speaking world, which pleaded with us to transmit their feelings to the Russian people.

Many people in Brazil see Russia as a counter-weight to the USA and many see it as a country with similar perspectives: a large country with great resources which it is striving to develop and for this reason many Brazilians come to Pravda.Ru as being a news site with a foot in both worlds.

We have implemented a number of projects, namely a consulting office helping Russian companies operate in the 8 Portuguese-speaking countries and also helping firms from these countries find partners in Russia; a free and voluntary service helping Brazilian and African immigrants with problems in Europe; a page publicising Tourism in Russia; we have contributed towards several books, writing chapters about the Russian Federation and finally, coordinating together with Computer Aid a scheme to channel used PCs to Less Developed Countries.

We are seen as a reference in the Portuguese-speaking world as regards news from Russia and are also one of the few sites where all the Portuguese-speaking countries can be seen on the same page, in our case with 30 up-dated articles for each one.

Our aim to be a cultural link and a door to developing business relations between the two parties is gradually being reached. Now we look forward to our next objective, upgrading and optimising our different projects so as to
contribute more proactively towards the Pravda.Ru group.

Finally, it must be stressed that without the selfless, dedicated attitude of our many collaboratos around the world, who have provided us with hours of their time, enthusiasm and love, writing original and interesting articles analysing a variety of topics, the Portuguese version would not exist.

It is to these collaborators that I dedicate this message of thanks on our second anniversary, proclaiming to all that I am proud and humbled to be working with such a great team, which I consider as my family.

Parabens! (Happy birthday)

Thank you.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
Director and Chief Editor
Portuguese version
PRAVDA.Ru