The all-Russian public organization Russian Author’s Society (RAO) is a non-governmental, non-commercial organization founded by authors and other rightsholders to manage copyright on a collective basis.
Throughout its history the Russian Authors' Society has been and continues to promote creativity, education, culture and art. It provides authors with the opportunity to benefit economically from the use of their works and also serves to achieve a harmonious balance between the exclusive proprietary rights of authors and the interests of society.
Based on contracts with authors, state accreditation, and mutual representation agreements with foreign copyright organizations, RAO today represents more than 26,000 Russian and 2,000,000 foreign authors and rightsholders.