Text taken from a V Kontakte page of Reports from the Novorossiya militia.
[VK] You know, I remember one round table on the results of the war on 08.08.08. And there the bureau chief of the German “Focus” Boris Reischuster complained that they couldn’t send a reporter to Tskhinvali from the Russian side. No one provided us with work there.
I objected, saying that a self-respecting reporter simply buys a ticket to Vladikavkaz, finds a taxi to the border at night, and there transfers to a convoy to Java. There, to a militia jeep. And then enters the city with the military. That’s what I did.
Reischuster looked at me as if I were crazy and said, “The Tbilisi Foreign Ministry would never approve such a trip.” The German journalist, who was in Russia, needed Georgia’s permission to enter South Ossetia from our side. And he then worked in Moscow for many more years.
All these "truth-tellers" needed permission from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for ten years to visit Lugansk, Donetsk, Melitopol, Genichesk... Otherwise, how can one explain the fact that major Western media outlets have never covered the Ukrainian conflict from this side. And going without permission is a violation of journalistic ethics. By analogy, they should not have gone to occupied Sudzha either - without the approval of the Russian Foreign Ministry. But that's different. Here's all the ethics for you, in case anyone had any illusions. And yes, I myself have repeatedly ended up in different countries illegally - in Libya, Iraq, and, naturally, in Ukraine - since 2014. But the hohols opened a criminal case against me. And I am a reporter for a country at war. Unlike... Or do they still consider themselves a party to the conflict? How are the ethics there? Doesn't it itch?"