The country’s Foreign Ministry has not granted accreditation to the African media to directly present Russia's domestic and foreign policies to the people in the continent.

In March this year, the Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department, Artyom Kozhin, had promised to prioritize media, art and culture, among several other programmes as part of efforts aimed at consolidating cooperation with African countries.

While the Foreign Ministry has accredited media from the United States, Europe and Asian countries, none came from Africa, which comprises 54 states.

According to Kremlin Spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, a record number of 1,702 journalists were accredited to President Vladimir Putin's press conference held on Thursday, December 20.

He underlined the openness of the event when he said "Of course, there is no differentiation, and there cannot be.

We are guided by the law on media that guarantees same access to the authorities, to all events for all accredited media. We do not impose any restrictions, and the president does not single out any particular countries."

The fact that the Kremlin "considers it possible to create such comfortable conditions for work even for those media that cannot be described as objective" represents a reason for pride” he said, adding that, "overall, 99.9 per cent of journalists who requested accreditation, got it".

"We traditionally ask our Foreign Ministry to assist in providing an easier access to entry visas for those foreign journalists who do not work here on a permanent basis," Peskov said.

 “Among accredited journalists are representatives of Asia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Europe, the range is very wide, and there is, of course, great interest."

President Putin holds his annual year-end news conference for both Russian and foreign journalists to sum up each year's results and plans in the subsequent years.

This year was Putin's first Q&A marathon during his new six-year presidential term and the 16th since 2001.