MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The Kremlin is ready to consider foreign journalists’ applications for obtaining Russian citizenship, if any are submitted, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
French war reporter Christel Nehan said at a meeting of the supervisory board of the Russia — Land of Opportunity autonomous non-profit organization on Wednesday that numerous Western reporters who cover events in Donbass would like to become Russian citizens.
Peskov answered in the affirmative to a question of whether the Kremlin was ready to consider granting those journalists Russian citizenship. "The president, too, said he would be ready to help both Christel [Nehan] and other foreigners who live in new Russian regions and who have been telling the truth about what is going on there for a long time already, that it since the war began in 2014," he added.
According to the Russian presidential spokesman, the head of state will also help people in Russia’s new regions who would like to apply for Russian citizenship, especially those seeking to continue working there.
Peskov said the Kremlin had known Nehan for quite a long time already and that "she has plans on how to establish a system of work." "It is this project that the president said he would help her with," Peskov specified.
Earlier, Nehan put forward an initiative to form a team of Western journalists working in Russia. According to her, almost all Western journalists who tell the truth despite the risks and threats are independent journalists, each working on his own. Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Nehan’s work and pledged to support her project.