Sergei Valchenko wins Interfax award named after Vitaly Dzhibuti

A presentation of the annual national award named after Vitaly Dzhibuti, "For the best coverage of the military topic in Russian media," established by Interfax Information Services Group and the Russian Defense Ministry, took place in Moscow on Thursday.

The prize for the best military coverage in 2016 went to Sergei Valchenko, the news editor of Rambler web portal. The prize was delivered to the winner by Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, head of the Defense Ministry‘s department of information and mass communications, and Interfax Executive Director Georgy Gulia, an Interfax-AVN correspondent reported.

"Sergei is an excellent military journalist, a top-class professional, who worked for years in Vitaly Revazovich‘s team. This is a truly deserved award, the title of the laureate of an award named after your friend and teacher," Konashenkov said at the ceremony.

This is already the fifth presentation of the award. Previous laureates were Alexander Konovalov, senior correspondent for the ITAR-TASS news agency (2012); Sergei Babkin, military news commentator at Interfax (2013); Oleg Filichev, military commentator from the Miltiary-Industrial Courier (VPK) weekly (2014); and Yury Gavrilov, a special correspondent for Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper (2015).

Vitaly Dzhibuti worked for the Interfax news agency from its early days and was among the brightest journalists. He was assigned the most difficult and challenging tasks of covering the work of the Russian Defense Ministry, other law enforcement agencies, high-level official visits and negotiations. From September 2001 onwards, Dzhibuti was the editor-in-chief of the Interfax-Military News Agency. Not only was Dzhibuti a remarkable journalist and a true professional, but he was also the heart and soul of the staff. His untimely departure, on February 14, 2012, at the age of 48, was a huge loss not only for his Interfax colleagues but also for the entire community of Russian military journalists.

As a military correspondent, Dzhibuti provided coverage from almost every hotspot, both in our country and the rest of the former Soviet Union, demonstrating stamina, courage, initiative. He was decorated, among other awards, with the Order for Personal Courage, the medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, 2nd degree; and the medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, 1st degree.

To perpetuate Dzhibuti‘s memory, Interfax, jointly with the Defense Ministry, established the annual award for the best coverage of the military topic in Russian media. It is awarded to military and defense journalists whose reports received the most widespread public response.

Winners are selected by a special jury of representatives from the Defense Ministry, government agencies, the most authoritative representatives from Interfax Information Services Group and civic organizations.

The winner receives a special diploma and a monetary prize of 100,000 rubles. The prize is awarded: for bold and uncompromising coverage of the military topic; for preparation of articles on the military topic which had the biggest public response; for a great personal contribution in coverage of the military topic; and for the best coverage of the military topic in Russian media.