MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Italian journalist Vincenzo Lorusso, who has been reporting on everyday life in Donbass and Novorossiya since 2022, has received a temporary residence permit in Russia and plans to apply for the country's citizenship, Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk announced.
"'If you love Russia - its history, traditions, culture, and values - then Russia is ready to open its doors to you,' Lorusso said upon receiving a temporary residence permit. The document was presented to him by my colleagues from the Migration Department of the Interior Ministry in the Lugansk People's Republic," she wrote on her Telegram channel.
Volk noted that the Italian provides Europeans with an opportunity to see the reality of life in Donbass and Novorossiya, where he has been working since 2022. She also added that Lorusso justified his decision to remain in Russia by expressing his disagreement with the Western countries' unfriendly policies toward the nation.
Lorusso received the documents based on the decree of the Russian president without delay.
He plans to become a Russian citizen in the future, Volk emphasized.
Vincenzo Lorusso is an Italian journalist and the founder of the Donbass Italia channel. He organized an unofficial distribution of the Russian film Witness by David Dadunashvili - a tape that tells the story of a Belgian violinist who falls into the hands of the Ukrainian army - throughout Italy.