Africa Missing From The Kremlin Press Conference – OpEd

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Since the establishment of the President’s Q&A press conference dubbed “The Direct Line” by the Kremlin administration, African media have been missing out. The simple reason is that the Russian Foreign Ministry has not granted accreditation to African media that could directly present Russia’s domestic and foreign policies to the African public from the Russian Federation.

In March this year, the Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department, Artyom Kozhin, reassured in his media briefing that the Russian Federation would prioritise media, art and culture among several other programmes in efforts aimed at consolidating cooperation with African countries.

While the Foreign Ministry has accredited media from the United States, Europe and Asian countries, none comes from Africa that comprises 54 states and most especially now when Russia is making efforts strengthening its relations with the continent.

According to Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, a record number of 1,702 journalists were accredited to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press conference held Thursday, December 20.

Dmitry Peskov has noted the openness of the press conference of President Vladimir Putin when he said “Of course, there is no differentiation, and they cannot be. We are guided by the law on media that guarantees same access to the authorities, to all events for all accredited media. We do not impose any restrictions, and the president does not single out any particular countries.”

The fact that the Kremlin “considers it possible to create such comfortable conditions for work even for those media that cannot be described as objective” represents a reason for pride, the Kremlin spokesman noted, adding “Overall, 99.9% of journalists who requested accreditation, got it.”

“We traditionally ask our Foreign Ministry to assist in providing an easier access to entry visas for those foreign journalists who do not work here on a permanent basis,” Peskov explained. Among accredited journalists are representatives of Asia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Europe, the range is very wide, and there is, of course, great interest.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual year-end news conference for both Russian and foreign journalists to sum up each year’s results and plans in the subsequent years. This year was Putin’s first Q&A marathon during his new six-year presidential term and the 16th since 2001. Putin has answered the questions of the country’s citizens 11 times as the president and four times as the prime minister.

The shortest of these news conferences lasted for 1 hour and 35 minutes back in 2001, while the 2013 news conference set the record as being the longest one, lasting for 4 hours and 48 minutes. The very first Q&A session with the Russian president was held on December 24, 2001.

Kester Kenn Klomegah

Kester Kenn Klomegah is an independent researcher and a policy consultant on African affairs in the Russian Federation and Eurasian Union. He has won media awards for highlighting economic diplomacy in the region with Africa. Currently, Klomegah is a Special Representative for Africa on the Board of the Russian Trade and Economic Development Council. He enjoys travelling and visiting historical places in Eastern and Central Europe. Klomegah is a frequent and passionate contributor to Eurasia Review.

One thought on “Africa Missing From The Kremlin Press Conference – OpEd

  • December 24, 2018 at 5:04 am
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    Africa is a fledgeling uprising in the making. They still have an industrialisation period of personal an local development an growth to go through.

    Reply

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