Russian news agency goes back to Soviet name: Tass

(AP) — The Russian news agency known since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union as ITAR-Tass has reverted to its old, historical name: Tass.

Some see it as another sign of Russian nostalgia for the Soviet era, which has been heightened by the conflict between Russia and the West over Ukraine. But it may also simply be an acknowledgment that the re-branding effort never really stuck.

The news agency was founded in 1904 under the last Russian czar. It was renamed after the 1917 Russian Revolution as the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, or TASS.

After the 1991 Soviet collapse, the agency became ITAR-Tass, with the acronym standing for Information Telegraph Agency of Russia.

In reverting Wednesday back to Tass, the agency noted the name was no longer an acronym.