diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index 79d27ef..b03d0ae 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
 Release Notes; upgrade information mainly.
 Features/major bugfixes are listed in NEWS
 
+portage-2.3.44
+==================================
+* Bug Fixes:
+    - Bug 630292 parallel pngfix
+    - Bug 661834 rsync: fix _commit_download to drop privileges
+    - Bug 661838 webrsync: support sync-openpgp-key-path
+    - Bug 661906 git: fix key refresh failure to trigger abort
+
+
 portage-2.3.43
 ==================================
 * Bug Fixes:
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b45a296..52cda62 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -662,7 +662,7 @@
 
 setup(
 	name = 'portage',
-	version = '2.3.43',
+	version = '2.3.44',
 	url = 'https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Portage',
 	author = 'Gentoo Portage Development Team',
 	author_email = 'dev-portage@gentoo.org',