In 1999
Anton Nosik launched Lenta.ru together with
Gleb Pavlovsky of
the Foundation for Effective Politics. It was (like vesti.ru) a sister e-news project under the brand
Gazeta.Ru. Nosik served as its chief editor till 2004. In 2013, Alexander Mamut through his ownership of the Afisha-Rambler-SUP Group acquired Lenta.ru. In January 2013, the website was relaunched with a new design and significant changes to the rubricating system. This was the most serious update of the site since 2004. In 2020, Mamut sold Rambler to Sberbank.
Replacement of the leadership and staff in 2014 Following a March 10, 2014, Lenta.ru interview by
Ilya Azar of from the
Right Sector's Kyiv branch, Russian censorship organization
Roskomnadzor accused Lenta.ru of violating Russian media censorship and "counter-extremism" laws. Since the warning by Roskomnadzor was the second issued in a 12-month period, Roskomnadzor could ask the courts to terminate Lenta.ru's mass media license. On March 12, 2014 the owner,
Alexander Mamut, fired the Editor-in-Chief Galina Timchenko and replaced her with Alexey Goreslavsky. Thirty-nine employees out of the total 84, including Director-general Yuliya Minder, lost their jobs. This includes 32 writing journalists, all photo-editors (5 people) and 6 administrators. The employees of
Lenta.ru issued a statement that the purpose of the move was to install a new Editor-in-Chief directly controlled by the Kremlin and turn the website into a propaganda tool.
Dunja Mijatović, the
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, referred to the move as a manifestation of censorship. Galina Timchenko, together with a team of around 20 journalists who resigned from their jobs at
Lenta.ru, started the new internet newspaper
Meduza.
Coverage of 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 9 May 2022, the Russian Victory Day, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lenta.ru briefly displayed information about the Russian war against Ukraine in a way that did not comply with government regulations or the enforced guidelines of Lenta.ru. Articles were published regarding the mass killing of civilians, looting, abandoned bodies of Russian troops, the destruction of
Mariupol, censorship, governmental lies to relatives of deceased soldiers, attacks against the freedom of press, and more. Lenta.ru journalists Egor Polyakov and Alexandra Miroshnikova have stated that they were the authors of these articles, and reported that they now need new jobs, lawyers, and political asylum. The content was quickly removed, but can be found in
Wayback Machine. == Chief editors ==