More than $ 19,000 spent on disinfecting journalists with silver before Putin's press conference
More than $ 1.5 million (117 million rubles) was spent by the Russian President's Office for Vladimir Putin's press conference. This was reported by Russian media with reference to public procurement data, as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
In particular, more than $ 19,000 (1.4 million rubles) was spent on disinfecting journalists who came to the press conference. According to public procurement, this is the sum of the two-day lease of six disinfection booths that were installed at the entrance, and fumigation agents with silver particles sprayed on everyone who passes through the booths.
As Medusa noted that there were no medical organizations that would recommend the use of silver in such a way.
Putin's press conference took place on December 23 at the Moscow Manege. There was no free accreditation for the event this year: the Kremlin itself chose and invited representatives of various media outlets. As a result, 507 people were on the list, more than half of them from the regions.
Among those accredited were also journalists from RFE/RL, Dozhd TV, and Meduza, recognized by the Russian authorities as "foreign agents." At the same time, none of the employees of these media outlets were not allowed to ask questions.
Journalists from Novaya Gazeta, whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov received the Nobel Peace Prize this year, were not invited to a meeting with Putin, citing restrictions on Rospotrebnadzor.
The correspondent of the Ukrainian agency UNIAN Roman Tsymbalyuk did not go to the press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin, although he received an invitation.
According to Tsymbalyuk, he was contacted for so many times by the Kremlin's press service, asking if he would attend the event. Instead, the journalist reminded that several administrative proceedings had been opened against him in Russia on charges of extremism.
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