Path to war correspondent
Stenin was born on December 22, 1980, in the town of Pechora in Russia's Komi Republic.
In 2003, he began writing for Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper’s society section, later moving to the Gazeta.Ru news portal for several years.
In 2008, he took up photography and contributed to RIA Novosti, ITAR-TASS, Reuters, Associated Press and France Press news agencies, as well as to the Kommersant newspaper, as a freelance photographer.
Stenin began working as a RIA Novosti photojournalist in 2009 and then as a special photographer for the Integrated Photography Directorate at Rossiya Segodnya in 2014.
Stenin specialized in documenting the human side of accidents, riots, military offensives and armed conflicts. Syria, the Gaza Strip, Libya and Turkey are only a few places he worked in during his time at the company.
He received the Iskra mass media award in 2010 and the Silver Camera Award in 2010 and 2013.
On August 5, 2014, Stenin, lost contact with his editorial team while on assignment in eastern Ukraine. Local sources said he might have been detained by the Ukrainian security forces, but this was not confirmed by Kiev.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry announced his disappearance on August 11. The next day, Kiev said it was aware of Stenin’s whereabouts.
Adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior Anton Herashchenko said in an interview with Latvia’s Radio Baltkom that the Russian photojournalist had been arrested by Ukrainian special services on suspicion of "assisting terrorists." Later, Herashchenko said his words were "misinterpreted" and that he only assumed Stenin had been detained, but had no accurate information. Baltkom then shared these assertions with the media.
Rallies in support of the photojournalist were staged across the world. Various officials and groups expressed concern about his fate, including OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontiers, RSF).
On September 3, 2014, It was announced that Stenin had been killed in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Region on August 6. The car he was driving, while on editorial assignment, was shot and caught on fire.
On September 5, 2014, Stenin was buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, where the journalist was interred with full military honors – three salvos to honor the fallen.
On the day of the funeral, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an document awarding Stenin the Order of Courage posthumously for the heroism he showed in performing his professional duties.
On December 22, 2014, a memorial plaque was unveiled in his honor at the entrance to the Rossiya Segodnya building on Zubovsky Boulevard in Moscow.
In December 2014, Rossiya Segodnya launched the Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest under the patronage of the Russian National Commission for UNESCO. The contest is a major international platform for young photographers in Russia and around the world.
In February 2015, one of Stenin’s works placed third in the Impact 2014 — Human Conflict category at the Picture of the Year International (POYi) competition.
On the first anniversary of Stenin's death, his friends and colleagues prepared an album of Stenin's best works, entitled "The Conflict Zone."
At the end of August, a school in the town of Snizhne in the Donetsk Region was named in honor of Stenin. A memorial plaque on the school commemorating the slain photojournalist was unveiled on September 1.
