Ruwiki, the Russian counterpart of the well-known Wikipedia online encyclopedia, is scheduled to be live on Monday, according to sources from Russian media.
According to the daily Kommersant, beta testing, or testing the website with a smaller audience, began in the middle of 2023, and as of right now, there are supposedly more articles on Ruwiki than in the Russian-language section of Wikipedia.
As one of the few independent news sites still operating in Russia following the government crackdown on internet content that followed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Wikipedia has stated that Russia does not currently have plans to stop it.
However, because the online encyclopedia contains material about Ukraine, Russian courts have fined it several times.
According to Russian media, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved new Wikipedia alternatives in May 2022.
The list of 2023 deaths, the expansion of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, and the highest-grossing Russian films were among the most popular items during the beta testing phase, according to a story published last week in the Izvestia daily, which cited Ruwiki’s press office.
According to Izvestia, throughout the trial period, users would spend an average of more than six minutes on the site, with a viewing depth of more than five pages.
According to Kommersant, the Ruwiki founders refused to reveal the project’s total cost or the identities of the website’s backers.
