ABSTRACT
Informational behaviour in Russia is a constant worry for many media professionals, including foreign journalists and press monitoring organisations among others. Attitudes towards information in Russia have attracted much attention, especially following the way in which the media and their audiences were informed about such 'events' as the Kursk nuclear submarine tragedy in August 2000, and the hostage-taking at the Nord-Ost theatre in Moscow in October 2002. Associations with the recent past of the Soviet Union are never far away in discussions of the authorities' style of handling information—or of the lack of information they provide.
