Ekho Kavkaza, the Russian-language unit of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Georgian Service that targeted audiences in the occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali regions, closed on May 1 as part of the organization’s restructuring. In an April 28 statement, RFE/RL also announced the merger of four services — Radio Svaboda, Current Time, Radio Azadliq, and Marsho Radio — into a single multimedia programming unit for audiences in Russia, and said that it will take over covering “newsworthy events in these occupied regions for Russian-language audiences.” The Georgian Service will continue to program in Georgian. The statement said the changes are part of a “reform plan.” RFE/RL, funded by the U.S. Congress, “will focus its resources on providing independent news and information to audiences in countries where free media is banned or not fully developed.”