Many Russian journalists consider the Donetsk People’s Republic their second homeland, Chief of the Information Ministry’s Office for Accreditation of Journalists and Foreign Media Affairs Angelika Shkribitko claimed during the interview with a correspondent of the DPR Official Website on June 11.
“Primarily representatives of Russian media and foreign mass media come to us, our office works as a “gateway” to our Republic, because you must be accredited by the Information Ministry to work in the DPR.
The accreditation process itself happens quite fast, after you submit a preliminary application. The application is handled within a week, during which we verify information a journalist fills out in this application.
Despite the pandemic, representatives of 150 foreign media, most of whom were Russian journalists, visited us this year alone.
Russian journalists do not regard the Donetsk People’s Republic as a foreign country. Quite the opposite, they go here like to a Russian region. Especially those who have been here since 2014, living with us all this time. They are very much sympathetic to what is happening here and definitely want to see us an entity of the Russian Federation,” she emphasized.
12 thousand journalists have been accredited in the Republic since 2014, including 3.5 thousand Russian journalists from 287 various media outlets and 2.3 thousand foreign media representatives from 440 foreign media outlets.