A full-scale launch of Ruwiki, a Russian version of the popular Wikipedia web encyclopedia, will happen on Monday, according to Russian media reports.
Beta testing – a limited audience testing of the site – began in mid-2023, the day by day Kommersant reported, and there have been reportedly already more articles in Ruwiki than in the Russian-language segment of Wikipedia.
Russia has said it was not yet planning to block Wikipedia – certainly one of the few surviving independent sources of data in Russia since a state crackdown on online content intensified after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian courts, nonetheless, have handed the online encyclopedia a series of fines over Ukraine-related content since.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his approval to latest alternative platforms to Wikipedia in May of 2022, according to Russian media.
![The Russian version of Wikipedia will launch on Monday.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/iStock-458558001.jpg?w=1024)
The Izvestia newspaper reported last week, citing Ruwiki’s press service, that the most-read articles during the beta testing phase included an inventory of deaths in 2023, the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the highest-grossing movies in Russia.
The common user would spend greater than six minutes on the site, and the average viewing depth was over five pages in the trial phase, Izvestia reported.
Kommersant said that the founders of Ruwiki wouldn’t disclose how much the project had cost or the names of the site’s investors.