MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/. Russia’s TASS news agency celebrated its 120th anniversary in the Bolshoi Theater on Saturday night.

At start of the event, the news agency’s staff and veterans were congratulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose video address was shown on a large screen.

A congratulatory letter from Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was read out by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. She also handed over the Order "For Valiant Labor" to the agency’s representatives. The state award was earlier bestowed on the agency by a presidential decree, making TASS the first Russian media outlet to receive it.

The order was attached to the agency’s banner, brought on stage by TASS photo correspondent Dmitry Yagodkin, accompanied by TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov, First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman, Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Petrov, Chair of TASS Veteran Journalists Association Lyudmila Yermakova and Chief Editor of the agency’s Kremlin and Government News Desk Veronika Romanenkova.

September 1, 2024 marks the 120th anniversary of TASS, Russia's leading government-run news agency. The St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency (SPTA) was the first in Russia to become a unified body for the dissemination of official information. It went on stream on September 1 (September 14, New Style), 1904.

On July 10, 1925, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union established a central national news outlet, the Telegraph Agency of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. After the proclamation of Russia's sovereignty, President Boris Yeltsin's decree of January 22, 1992, established the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia TASS (the abbreviation TASS was preserved as a globally recognized brand). On October 1, 2014, the agency regained its historical name - TASS. The abbreviation TASS has become a brand and is now not decoded.