The Arabic edition of the Moscow News paper, Anbaa Mosku, resumed under RIA Novosti’s aegis, is gaining popularity in the Middle East and North Africa, RIA Novosti’s chief editor Svetlana Mironyuk has said.

The original Anbaa Mosku, a translation of the Moskovsky Novosti (Moscow News), was first published in the USSR in 1969 as a mouthpiece for Soviet ideology.

RIA Novosti resumed the Arabic edition of the paper in November after a 17-year break as part of the Russian government's new strategy to step up relations with the Arab world.

“It is a newspaper with a different image and content from during the Soviet era…It is an Arabic paper with a Russian soul,” Mironyuk said. 

The redesigned newspaper is now distributed in 13 countries of the Middle East and North Africa., as well as in the U.K. and Russia. In London, the paper has a 10,000 monthly circulation.

“We are interested in Arabic-speaking London residents: businessmen, students studying in London, Arabic-speaking jet-setters,” Mironyuk told a news conference during the presentation of Anbaa Mosku in London.

RIA Novosti will hold a presentation of the paper in Dubai on October 3.

MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti)