Accreditation Deadline for Journalists Extended Ahead of FIFA World Cup

According to the press service, the deadline was extended due to a large number of applications.

"The fewer days left until the FIFA World Cup, the more applications are submitted to the city press centers. We deemed it necessary to extend the application deadline due to the high level of interest from our colleagues from abroad, as well as Russian journalists," head of Rossiya Segodnya's International Multimedia Press Center Olga Koleva said.

More than 5,000 journalists from almost 30 countries have already applied for the accreditation via the press center's official website.

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Moscow's press center will be the first to open on June 4, while 10 regional press centers will start working nine days later, providing the accredited journalists with workplaces, free Wi-Fi access, lockers and excursions, and enabling them to watch the World Cup matches as well as attend workshops, press conferences and briefings.

Rossiya Segodnya, Russia’s largest news agency, is the official operator of the regional multimedia press centers for Russian and foreign media.

Russia's first-ever FIFA World Cup will take place from June 14 to July 15 in 11 host cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, and Sochi.