Russian Fund Offers To Pay Icelandic Journalists For Ukraine Trip, No One Accepts

An Icelander has contacted several media outlets in the country with the offer from a Russian fund to pay for a trip to certain districts in Ukraine, RÚV reports, to cover snap referendums in those districts, which are currently fighting against Russian forces. No one has accepted this offer.

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Konráð Magnússon told reporters that a fund conducted by the Russian state would pay for the journey from Iceland to London, Istanbul, Moscow, and then to the Ukrainian districts where these snap referendums are planned: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.

These referendums have been widely criticised as being neither free nor fair, and serving only as an attempt by Russia to justify its invasion of Ukraine.

Konráð says that Stundin, Kjarninn, RÚV, Viljinn, Fréttablaðið, DV, Morgunblaðið and Stöð 2 have all been invited to cover these referendums. None of them have accepted. In fact, only one has even responded–Viljinn–and that was to decline the offer.

Insisting that he is not being paid for contacting Icelandic media for this project, Konráð says he is “neutral” on the subject of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but believes that media coverage of the attack has been one-sided and not often accurate. As no Icelandic journalist has yet accepted the offer, he regrets that no one in this country wants to get “the real picture of the situation”.