MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. TASS News Agency is expanding the range of its products for its foreign audience and is launching a newswire in the French language – TASS French News Service. It will publish up-to-date information about the most important events in Russia and around the world in a real-time mode.

Subscribers of TASS French News Service will get access to key news about foreign and domestic policy, security, military and technical potential, civil society and the financial situation in Russia. The agency will cover in the French language major international projects with Russia’s participation in the sphere of energy, space exploration, science and culture.

“Ensuring Russia’s media presence in its interests throughout the world is one of TASS’ key goals. In light of this, the launch of the French-language newswire is rather consistent and logical for us. There are nearly 300 mln Francophones in the world and French-speaking states constitute a significant and very sizeable part of the global news space,” TASS General Director Sergey Mikhailov emphasized, noting that it’s important for the news agency to provide information about Russia to the target audience around the entire world without any intermediaries.

“We want foreign audience to form a more comprehensive and unbiased view on the events in Russia, which can help it understand what Moscow seeks in its foreign policy, what life our citizens are living and what interests them,” he said.

According to Mikhailov, Russia is interested in developing trust-based relations between nations and expanding inter-state cooperation. “And I hope that our work will help solve these strategically important tasks,” the TASS director general said.

“The emergence of a French-language news wire in the range of TASS products meets today’s demands,” said Mikhail Petrov, TASS Deputy General Director and Editor-in-Chief. “We want to speak the same language with our readers, be closer to our audience in any corner of the world, providing trustworthy and pertinent information in the most convenient format.” “I’m sure that this newswire will enable those who speak the French language to learn more about the developments in Russia and the world, and will become a new and in-demand source of news,” he stressed.

The French-language newswire will provide nearly 150 daily messages: timely news, previews, factboxes and summaries of the day’s top stories. A special focus will be made on Russia’s relations with the French-speaking countries and regions in Europe, Africa, America and the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as local news of these countries and regions.

Starting on October 1, TASS French News Service will be operating from 08:00 Moscow Time (05:00 GMT) to 00:00 Moscow Time (21:00 GMT). News roundups will be released at 19:00 Moscow Time (16:00 GMT) and then the everyday schedule will include morning roundups and press reviews, and the news service will start operating round-the-clock. Access to TASS French News Service is free of charge through its up-to-date, top-notch TASS News Terminal (terminal.tass.ru) provided that the terms of the agreement on using TASS news content are observed.