MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency will set up an international photojournalism competition, named after its late employee Andrei Stenin, who was killed in Ukraine last month, with plans that it will become an analogue of World Press Photo, the head of the agency’s photoinformation department Alexander Shtol said.
“We are planning to hold this competition annually. To date, nothing of this kind was held. The main goal is to support and develop high standards of photojournalism and documentary photography in Russia. Rossiya Segodnya will be the founder and organizer of the competition,” Shtol said.
He added that the agency will also set up a grant named after Andrei Stenin that will be awarded to photographers for the development and realization of personal photo projects.
Rossiya Segodnya will also publish an album of Stenin’s photographs and hold a personal exhibition.
Andrei Stenin is the fourth Russian journalist killed while covering the ongoing events in the war-torn east of Ukraine.
Stenin went missing in eastern Ukraine on August 5. Sources suggested that the Ukrainian military could have detained the journalist, but Kiev has never officially confirmed the information. Several events in support of the journalist were held around the world while his fate remained unknown.
On Wednesday, Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev said that, according to information from the Russian Investigative Committee, Stenin died about a month ago near Donetsk when the car he was travelling in while on an editorial assignment was shot at and torched on a highway just outside the city.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has demanded that Kiev launch a complete and unbiased investigation into the murder of Russian journalist.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and several other Russian officials have expressed their condolences over Stenin’s death.
A farewell ceremony for Stenin was held Friday at the Rossiya Segodnya international press center for those wishing to pay their last respects to the photographer. Stenin was buried at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
