TASS After 1971, TASS was elevated to the status of State Committee at the Government of the Soviet Union. The agency was frequently used as a front organization by the Soviet intelligence agencies, such as the NKVD (later KGB) and Main Intelligence Directorate, with TASS employees serving as informants. In 1959, Alexander Alexeyev was dispatched to Cuba on a fact-finding mission, ostensibly working for TASS. In January 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a Presidential Decree signed by Boris Yeltsin re-defined status of TASS and renamed it the "Information Telegraph Agency of Russia". In May 1994 The Russian Government
Fars News Agency Fars News Agency The Fars News Agency is a news agency in Iran. While it describes itself as "Iran's leading independent news agency", it is widely described by news media to be a "semi-official" news agency of the Government of Iran. All its content is Creative Commons licensed. Fars News Agency was founded in 2003. In addition to Persian reporting, the agency also provides news in English, Turkish and Arabic. In June 2012, Fars released an interview with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in which Morsi is said to have told Fars that he wanted to restore ties with Iran and