The Russian government's international radio broadcasting service Golos Rossii (Voice of Russia) will stop its shortwave broadcasts from January 1 next year, the Digit.ru online journal reported Wednesday. The shortwave service is closing "due to funding cuts," Voice of Russia deputy director Natalya Zhmai said in a letter dated August 15 to Andrei Romanchenko, head of the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRBN), the journal said. Voice of Russia, established in 1929, currently uses RTRBN transmitters to broadcast to foreign countries using short and medium waves. After the shortwave service goes off the air, only three low-power medium wave transmitters will be used to broadcast to other countries, an industry source told Digit.ru. The radio will mostly use FM band transmitters based abroad, the source said. At the beginning of the year, Voice of Russia cut the total volume of shortwave broadcasts to 26 hours a day from more than 50 hours in 2012.
