Russian authorities reportedly working to create ‘unified information space’ in annexed Ukrainian territories

In the Russian-annexed parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as well as in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “republics,” the Russian authorities have begun work on “reformatting the information space,” the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported on Friday, citing sources from the Moscow-installed occupation administrations in those areas.

According to one of the sources, Russia plans to create a “channel for verified information” in each of the four territories, which the Kremlin considers to be “new regions” of Russia.

The infrastructure for systematizing Moscow’s information delivery to the annexed regions are already in place, according to Vedomosti, as Russian-controlled media agencies have already been created there. Vedomosti’s sources described the creation of the new “unified information space” as an effort by the Kremlin to begin working more actively with the “socio-economic agenda.”

The people tasked with developing the media outlets in the annexed regions will reportedly be advised by established pro-Kremlin journalists, including Lana Samarina, who previously worked as the deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian state media agency TASS and before that ran the Finance Ministry’s press service.

Experts on the Russian media space who spoke to Vedomosti noted that for now, the “main sources of information” in the annexed territories are local media personalities, private media companies, and large Telegram channels, and that the Kremlin wants to replace them with media agencies that have a “coordinated policy.”