The Voice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service. Its predecessor Radio Moscow was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On 9 December 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a presidential decree liquidating Voice of Russia as an agency and merging it with RIA Novosti to form the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency. Rossiya Segodnya translates to Russia Today, but must not be confused with the TV network RT, which was known as Russia Today before its rebranding in 2009.