Радио Sputnik (Россия) 256 кбит/с

Two words in the name are ordinary Russian rather than branding: Россия is Russia and Радио is radio. Worth a line for anyone reading a list of stations in a language they do not have.

Among the 471 stations in Russia with pages, Радио Sputnik (Россия) 256 кбит/с is around the halfway mark. Anything in this stretch is reachable from the country's numbered pages rather than from its front table, which is why those pages exist.

Broadcasting in Russian, alongside most of Russia's other entries. The country page breaks the remaining five languages out with counts, which is usually a quicker read of who lives somewhere than any summary.

Twice the local median and then some: 256 kbps where Russia's stations typically manage 128. Whether you can hear the difference depends entirely on what you are listening on, but the headroom is there.

The stream is served from icecast-rian.cdnvideo.ru, an address three other entries in Russia use as well. A small shared host is usually a group of stations under one owner or one technical provider rather than a platform.

The broadcaster publishes at ria.ru, on Russia's own country domain. A national domain is a small piece of evidence that the station is what the directory says it is, since these are the harder ones to register from somewhere else.