The official identification package for the channel was the star of the second antenna on a blue background with moving rings, symbolizing the radio waves, and the signature at the bottom of "II program", which then changed to "TV USSR."

Around February 1988, a new ident replaced it: circles were fixed, disappeared inscription "TV USSR", and the background was light blue with a white gradient.

In 1990, the creator of the program "The Fifth Wheel", People's Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Bella Kurkova requested the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia, Boris Yeltsin to create a separate Russian television station for the RSFSR, due to the fact that the central television channels reflect the views of the federal authorities.

On July 14, 1990 decree № 107-1 of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR officially established the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.

At the same time, the leadership of the company had been promised at least a 6-hour broadcast day as a national blocktimer for viewers within Russia, including a brand-new 20-minute newscast to be aired twice daily on the new channel.

Due to the opposition views of the Republican team, the new management staff, led by the new GM for the soon to be re-branded Russian Television, Sergei Podgorbunsky, faced difficulties ranging from an inability to rent a studio in the telecentre "Ostankino" to failure to provide the promised before air time for new programs.

Four studios - "News" for newscasts, "Republic" for current affairs, "Lad" for arts and culture and "Artel" for entertainment and lifestyle were created.

[7] On May 13, 1991, recently appointed to the post of deputy general manager of the State Television and Radio Valentin Lazutkin officially launched the brand new ARSTV Channel 2 with air times from 11.35 to 13.35, from 17.00 to 19.00 and from 21.45 to 23.45 (six hours a day total), weekdays and weekends, with AUC2 filling the rest of the schedule.

Studio "Vesti" in the "Ostankino" Center was blocked by AUC2 management, the transfer was recorded on video tape to "Shabolovke" for emergency situations has been prepared by an OB van and outside mobile facilities that the young channel had.

After the August Coup "RTR" by order of Valentin Lazutkin, its deputy GM for operations, officially resumed broadcasting this time from 19.00 to 00.00 (instead of 17.00 to 19.00 and 21.45 to 23.45).

On September 16, 1991 AUC2 ended its operations and RTR absorbed several of its staff and programs, therefore beginning the next day it began to broadcast from the very morning till late at midnight.

During the shooting of the White House, the director of the channel had violated the order to conduct the bombing broadcast live on that point, as long as the line of fire to avoid civilian casualties among the citizens of Moscow.

Technical Director Stanislav Bunevich able to carry TV broadcasts control of the country in building the All-Russian STRC on Yamskov field.

In the same year, Yuri Rostov, Vladislav Flyarkovsky and Aleksandr Gurnov started their jobs as field reporters for the channel under then head of news programming Alexander Nekhoroshev.

At that time there were many Latin American television series production and a lot of new TV shows: Two piano Household chores [ru], Schedule, Purple haze, and Hakuna matata.

Up to 1999, the national channel was plagued by broadcasting problems resulting from its dependence on its local state affiliates (GTRKs) for retransmission of its signal.

The first step leading to the solution of this problem was the creation of the state holding company VGTRK, which united 89 state-owned regional studios under the aegis of the Moscow-based Channel 2.

In February 2004, the Russian government issued a resolution on the reorganization of VGTRK through affiliation of subsidiaries, including regional GTRK companies.

This decision caused an inevitable reduction of GTRK broadcasting volume from 900 - 1,200 to 590 hours, the closure of whole subdivisions and departments and the dismissal of hundreds of employees in each of the 89 companies.

In 2017, Dmitry Skorobutov, a long-term editor at the channel, published a periodically-updated guide for journalists that contains a list of topics, the coverage of which is forbidden.

It included topics such as anti-government protests, the downing of MH17 over Donbas, Nadia Savchenko, Crimean Tatars, and even Queen Elizabeth II's anniversary.

The original story was traced to a satirical piece written by a Russian author Dmitry Sedov, in a form of a panicked letter from American navy sailor to his wife.