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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends,

I sincerely congratulate the TASS team, its former employees, and everyone who had worked here at various times, on the 120^th anniversary of the Russian News Telegraph Agency.

Its history is inextricably linked with the history of our country, and the name itself, TASS, has long since become legendary. It is an internationally known brand associated with accurate, reliable, and trustworthy information.

From its earliest days, TASS has captured the spirit and trends of the times, quickly and efficiently reported on developments around the world, and set the highest standards in journalism.

The agency has always attracted talented, creative, and driven people. The names of its correspondents, photographers, and observers have always been household names which were respected both within the journalistic community and by the public in our country and internationally.

The Great Patriotic War came as a special, heroic chapter in TASS history. The efforts of its war correspondents, their courage, and their dedication to Victory created a priceless chronicle of the people’s heroic battle against Nazism.

Today, TASS continues to uphold the best of these traditions and remains a true training ground for new generations of journalists. It is making wide strides in keeping with the modern digital era.

I am delighted to welcome and wish productive work to the participants of the BRICS Media Summit, which has opened in Moscow. It is being attended, among others, by the TASS agency’s partners from the Asia-Pacific region and the CIS.

This international cooperation is benefitting our common goals. Amid a complex process of the development of a multipolar world, it is especially important to uphold the principles of the reliability of information and true freedom of speech, which should reflect different views as a method of looking for compromise and common approaches to global issues.

The BRICS countries are firmly and consistently expanding cooperation in various spheres, including information, and share the values of an equal and really just world order. An enormous role in his belongs to the media which try to present an objective and undistorted picture of the world and show the diversity of cultures and traditions to their societies and citizens.

I hope that the BRICS Media Summit will become yet another step towards stronger relations between our countries and will help establish new business and ordinary human contacts.

 Would also like to remind you that a BRICS Summit will be held in Kazan soon, more precisely, in October. I am confident that it will be given proper information coverage, including thanks to your work.

I would like to congratulate the TASS staff on this event and to wish them good health, well-being and certainly professional achievements.