BERLIN—Dmitry Tulchinskiy, bureau chief here of Russian state news agency Rossiya Segodnya, shares a quiet hallway with a travel company and a chess club.

By next year, that office could get cramped. The agency's Berlin staff is supposed to grow from two to at least 30. Its job, according to a directive signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will be to "illuminate abroad the state policies" of the Russian Federation.

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