title: Paris Hilton

text: In February 2008, "The Hottie and the Nottie", a romantic comedy in which Hilton starred, was released theatrically; the film was a critical and commercial failure, with Hilton eventually receiving the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. In April, she appeared in the "My Name Is Earl" episode "I Won't Die with a Little Help from My Friends". At the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, a documentary about Hilton, "Paris, Not France", was screened. She starred in a MTV reality series, "Paris Hilton's My New BFF", about her search for a new best friend, which premiered shortly after, on September 30. The series was a hit and topped all other cable shows in its time slot. In August and October, she appeared in two viral "Funny or Die" videos, "Paris Hilton Responds to McCain" and "Paris Hilton Gets Presidential with Martin Sheen". In 2008, Hilton released her fifth fragrance for women, Fairy Dust, and inspired by her love for dogs, created a canine apparel line, Little Lily by Paris Hilton.


title: Paris Hilton

text: The gothic rock musical "Repo! The Genetic Opera" (2008) featured Hilton as Amber Sweet, the surgery and painkiller-addicted daughter of a biotech magnate. After screening at the San Diego Comic-Con International, the film received a limited release. "Horror.com" said: "Not only is this by far Hilton's best role, she's actually got a grain of gravitas in the end". "Jam! Movies" called her a "hopeless twit as an actress". She was nominated for the 2009 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance. As a result of the American version's success, "Paris Hilton's British Best Friend" debuted on ITV2 in England on January 29, 2009, the second season of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" premiered on June 2, and "Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF" was internationally broadcast on MTV in April 2011. She guest-starred in the fifth episode of "Supernatural"s fifth season, which aired on October 8, 2009. In 2009, Hilton also released her sixth fragrance for women, Siren, a sunglasses line, and a range of hair products that included shampoos, conditioners and vitamins. She won the Female Celebrity Fragrance of the Year Award at the 2009 Fifi Awards.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In February 2010, Hilton participated in an advertising campaign for the Brazilian beer Devassa Bem Loura, whose slogan roughly translates into English as "very blonde bitch". As part of the campaign, she rode the brewery's float in the Rio Carnival. The critically acclaimed documentary "Teenage Paparazzo", in which Hilton appeared, aired on HBO on September 27. She had her first voice-over role in the ABC made-for-television film "The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation". The film aired on November 28, 2010 and attracted a respectable 2.611 million viewership. That year, Hilton launched her tenth fragrance, Tease, which was inspired by Marilyn Monroe, a footwear line in Las Vegas, and her motorcycle racing team in Spain. Her driver, Maverick Viñales, won the final race and finished third overall in the 2011 125cc Grand Prix motorcycle racing championship.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On June 1, 2011, Hilton returned to reality television in Oxygen's "The World According to Paris". Focused on her daily life, the series bought in lackluster ratings amid a controversial promotional campaign, which was attributed to Hilton's then-fading popularity in North America. Alessandra Stanley, for "The New York Times", described her as an "attractive woman with proven talent for marketing and self-promotion, though as a reality heroine she seems a little passé [...] it's hard to see how she can recapture the kind of audience she enjoyed in her heyday—even by streaming her premiere live on Facebook". In 2011, she modeled for Triton during Brazil Fashion Week and for Andre Tan during Ukraine Fashion Week, and continued her endorsement and retail endeavours, introducing the Passport Collection, with perfumes inspired by cities such as Paris, South Beach and Tokyo, a mobile application which became available for iPhone and iPod touch, and footwear collections in Mexico City, and Istanbul. By November 2011, Hilton had opened several boutiques selling her products in Egypt, United Arab Emirates, India and Philippines.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On June 28, 2012, at Brazil's Pop Music Festival, Hilton made her debut as a DJ, which attracted negative responses from DJs Deadmau5, Samantha Ronson and Afrojack. She next received a US$1 million fee to star in a music video for Korean singer Kim Jang-hoon, which was filmed on Malibu Beach, and modeled for designers Shane and Falguni Peacock at India Fashion Week, also appearing as a DJ. In 2012, she launched a line of sunglasses in Shanghai, her fifteenth perfume, Dazzle, and a store in Mecca.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In January 2013, Hilton appeared in four episodes of the Danish version of "Paradise Hotel", for which she was paid US$300,000. In April, Hilton opened the 44th Paris Hilton store in Bogotá, Colombia. In May, Hilton signed with Cash Money Records, appeared in the music video for Rich Gang's song "Tapout", alongside Lil Wayne, Christina Milian and Nicki Minaj, and Sofia Coppola's film "The Bling Ring"—which featured her in a cameo and revolved around the infamous group of teenagers who had robbed her house, along with others—was released in theaters. In addition to appearing in the film, she loaned Coppola her house for two weeks of shooting. Recalling the house, Coppola said: "It was like we have to get this into the movie. It was so unique. It would be hard to recreate that. She is larger than life and her house is like Paris World."


title: Paris Hilton

text: During August 2013, Hilton was a DJ at Amnesia's weekly "Foam and Diamonds" parties on Ibiza. The positive reaction from critics and audiences led to her contract's renewal for the subsequent four years. In October, Hilton released the first single through Cash Money, "Good Time", featuring rapper Lil Wayne. It debuted at number eighteen on the US "Billboard" Dance/Electronic Songs chart. In November, Hilton won the Best Breakthrough DJ award at the NRJ DJ Awards.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In January 2014, Hilton became a resident DJ at Harrah's Atlantic City's "The Pool After Dark". In March, she unveiled her first real estate project, the Paris Beach Club, in collaboration with Century Properties Group, Inc., at the Azure Urban Resort Residences in Parañaque, the Philippines. In July, her next single, "Come Alive", was released, and she made a cameo appearance in another Carl's Jr. commercial, paying homage to the one in which she starred in 2005. To further her career as a DJ, Hilton embarked on a summer and fall tour consisting of 13 shows in Spain, France, Portugal, South Korea, Colombia and New Jersey. By November 2014, Hilton was the highest-paid female DJ and won as Best Female DJ at the NJR DJ Awards. In December, she worked as a DJ at W Hotel's Art Basel parties in Miami, where she has since performed annually.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In March 2015, Hilton released her 19th fragrance, a limited edition of her second fragrance, Heiress, and Animoca Brands, a mobile game developer from Hong Kong, announced that they had secured a license from Hilton to use her name and likeness to produce mobile games and themes. In May, her third single under Cash Money, "High Off My Love", was released. It eventually peaked at number three on the "Billboard" US Dance Club Songs chart. In June, she performed at Summerfest in Milwaukee in front of 50,000 concert-goers. An online campaign to get her thrown off the bill achieved over 7,000 votes. In 2016, Hilton teamed up with Lidl for a hair care collection, and released her 20th fragrance, Gold Rush, followed by its male counterpart, Gold Rush for Men; she subsequently released Rosé Rush, in 2017, and Platinum Rush, in 2018. In 2017, Hilton walked the runway for Christian Cowan during New York Fashion Week and for Philipp Plein during Milan Fashion Week, appeared in the videos for the Demi Lovato song "Sorry Not Sorry", and the Kim Petras debut single "I Don't Want It at All", and launched footwear and home decor lines in Mexico City. For April Fools' Day 2017, she starred in a SodaStream's viral campaign, promoting NanoDrop, a fictitious sparkling-water product.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In January 2018, Hilton modeled Kanye West's Yeezy Season 6 collection by recreating paparazzi photos of Kim Kardashian. She released "I Need You" as a digital download on February 14, 2018 (Valentine's Day). It debuted at number 48 and peaked at number 32 on the Dance Club Songs "Billboard" chart. In June, Hilton was a model on Philipp Plein's Plein Sport fashion show in Milan, and launched both her 70-piece collection with Boohoo.com, and her skincare line. In September, Hilton channeled Cruella de Vil for The Blonds show and modeled for Namalia during New York Fashion Week; in October, she partnered with Nail and Bone to create five nail polishes named after her dogs; and in November, she presented a clothing collection in Mexico. In 2018, Hilton was also what was described as "the centerpiece" of two projects about social media and various personalities' online presence. The documentary "The American Meme" premiered on Netflix in December 2018, after screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was written and directed by Bert Marcus, and she was one of the executive producers. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 93 rating based on 28 reviews, with Hilton receiving acclaim for showing her vulnerability and giving audiences a glimpse into the dark side of fame. She also hosted "Hollywood Love Story", a six-episode series that aired on Viceland.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Between February and April 2019, Hilton walked the runway for The Blonds and Christian Cowan, modeled for Philipp Plein's Plein Sport campaign, and was a special guest in the twelfth episode of "Germany's Next Topmodel"s 14th cycle. "B.F.A. (Best Friend's Ass)", her song with Belgian production duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, was released on May 10, 2019. Kim Kardashian and other social media personalities appeared in the music video. The song peaked at number 45 on the "Billboard" Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and at number 25 on Belgium's Ultratop chat. On May 30, Hilton was announced as a partner and investor of demand beauty platform The Glam App. On July 19, she released "Lone Wolves", a song with vocalist MATTN, which peaked at 59 on Ultratop. Two days later, she performed as a DJ in Tomorrowland. Electrify—her 25th fragrance—came out in September.


title: Paris Hilton

text: "This Is Paris" (2020), a YouTube Originals documentary directed by Alexandra Dean, focuses on her personal and professional trajectory. In the film, Hilton revealed her experiences with emotional, verbal and physical abuse while attending a series of boarding schools as a teenager. Unprepared to disclose that information, she trusted Dean's approach and found the process of filming to be a healing space for her. She served as a producer but did not have artistic authority over the production, which she admitted that it was a big risk, since she always had "complete creative control" of her business ventures. It garnered over 16 million views in its first month of release and was deemed a successful "rebranding" of her image. In 2020, Hilton was a guest judge for the premiere episode of James Charles's YouTube series "Instant Influencer", and produced and starred in filmmaker Ramez Silyan's narrative short film "Sorry". She modeled at Rihanna's "Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 2", and in advertisement campaigns for Kim Kardashian's brand Skims and Valentino. That year, Hilton also released a merchandise collection, which includes T-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirt featuring one of her trademark catchphrases, and a single with Lodato, "I Blame You".


title: Paris Hilton

text: In 2021, Hilton created London Audio, in partnership with iHeartMedia, and Slivington Manor Entertainment, with an overall deal at Warner Bros. Unscripted Television. Her podcast "This Is Paris" debuted on February 22, 2021, and served as "the flagship of a planned slate of seven shows to be produced by Hilton's company, London Audio, and the iHeartPodcast Network. The other programs, featuring different hosts, will be released over the next three years". It offers a blend of personal content and conversations with her family, friends and other celebrities. Following a viral YouTube video Hilton posted in January 2020, which showed her cooking a homemade lasagne, Netflix announced "Cooking with Paris", a six-part reality series released on August 4, 2021. She hosted the program, with guests including Kim Kardashian West, Nikki Glaser, Demi Lovato, Saweetie, Lele Pons, and Kathy and Nicky Hilton. The series received lukewarm reviews from critics, who considered it a "fun but pointless" production, and briefly entered Netflix's daily Top 10 rankings. Her next reality television venture, Peacock's "Paris in Love", soon followed, premiering on November 11, the day she married Carter Reum. That year, Hilton launched a NFT collection, in collaboration with designer Blake Kathryn, which raked in US$1.5 million, and become an investor and advisor of R3SET, a consumer wellness brand, and Origin Protocol, a sharing economy organization, as well as the face for Lanvin's spring-summer 2021 campaign.


title: Paris Hilton

text: The podcast "Trapped In Treatment", which Hilton produced, debuted on January 18, 2022. Hosted by Caroline Cole and Rebecca Mellinger, each season focuses on personal accounts at one youth treatment facility, starting with Provo Canyon School. In March 2022, Hilton released a tracksuits line, announced a sunglasses collection in collaboration with eyewear brand Quay Australia, and joined the cast of the YouTube animated web series "Rainbow High".


title: Paris Hilton

text: A particularly polarizing figure since rising to fame, Hilton has often been the subject of harsh criticism. Writing for "The New York Times" in 2003, John Leland opined: "In a ravenous celebrity culture, Ms. Hilton's rise shows how far celebrity itself has been devalued". Kay S. Hymowitz, in a 2006 article for "City Journal", published by the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, described Americans as having "less of a common culture, but we all still share Paris Hilton," further stating that even "if you don't read the tabloids, you can't escape her [...] for most sentient adults Hilton personifies the decadence of our cultural moment."


title: Paris Hilton

text: A 2006 poll conducted by the Associated Press and AOL concluded that she was the second-Worst Celebrity Role Model, behind Britney Spears. According to a June 2007 Gallup poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) felt very unsympathetic toward Hilton, and a November 2007 online survey of children conducted by E-Poll Market Research ranked her among the most unfriendly celebrities among children. The 2007 "Guinness World Records" named her the world's "most overrated celebrity", and "Forbes" ranked her as the most "overexposed" in 2006 and 2008. The latter stated in 2008 that "65% of the U.S. population would use the term 'overexposed' to describe Hilton [...] To put that in perspective, most celebrities average between 3% and 7% on the E-Poll celebrity index during the peak of their careers". In the "Forbes" list, she also ranked second, fifth and eight in 2007, 2012 and 2014 respectively. A 2011 Ipsos poll concluded that she was the most unpopular celebrity with Americans (with 60 percent of respondents viewing her unfavorably).


title: Paris Hilton

text: Despite the noticeable public disapproval, Hilton was among the most popular searches on various web browsers (such as Google, AOL and Lycos) between 2004 and 2008. In 2004, she was named one of the "10 Most Fascinating People", according to Barbara Walters' annual primetime special ("Paris' Most Shocking Moments"). "Forbes" included her in its Celebrity 100, which ranks the highest-paid celebrities, in 2004, 2005 and 2006. She ranked 59th, 23rd, 34th and 35th in "FHM"s 100 Sexiest Women poll in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2012, respectively, and was 20th and 38th on "Maxim" magazine's Hot 100 list in 2005 and 2006. She was included among the "50 Most Popular Women on the Web" by Google in 2010 and among the "100 Hottest Women of All Time" by "Men's Health" in 2011. In 2021, she ranked seventh in "Fortune" magazine's list of the 50 most influential people in the NFT industry.


title: Paris Hilton

text: The nature and extent of her fame is often questioned by critics, as she is not considered an artist nor performer. Blair Soden of "ABC News" noted: "She's made a lot of money with a hodgepodge of traditional celebrity revenue. But what she's best at is being Paris Hilton". Writers indeed suggest that Hilton epitomizes the "celebutante": a celebrity for no particularly identifiable reason other than inherited wealth and lavish lifestyle. Cait Munro of "Refinery29" asserted: "Paris Hilton is an icon not just of the 2000s, but of a certain widely held image of what inherited wealth, undeserved fame, and American excess looks like".


title: Paris Hilton

text: Much of her image has centered on her "party girl-heiress archetype" as well as her blonde hair and the stereotypes associated with it, especially stupidity, naïveté, sexual availability and artificiality. The development of that character stemmed from the initial success of "The Simple Life" and her desire to embody "the ultimate brand based on [...] the right everything for a formula that far exceeded anybody else at that time", according to Jason Moore, her former manager. He stated: "She was the ultimate package that corporate America would want to make for itself as a marketing tool, but it was already made for them. They say to be a famous person, people want to be you or [sleep with you], and she encompassed both of those".


title: Paris Hilton

text: Fashion and language are two contributing factors to Hilton's star image. Known for her long bleached blonde hair, valley girl accent, and use of blue coloured contact lenses over her naturally brown eyes, she developed her personal aesthetic through mainly pink attire, Juicy Couture tracksuits, rhinestones, trucker hats, oversized sunglasses, and the "accessory dog". She mimed "high-fashion poses learned from drag queens" and created what was described as the "Paris talk". For instance, she often uses one-liners and a breathy, childish voice in television shows and interviews.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Her dim-witted blonde persona, a carefully crafted act, found significant credence among the general public, which she has described as an obstacle in her career. She once remarked: "People assume before they meet me that I'm a really ditzy dumb blonde. That's the one thing that kind of annoys me sometimes. They just think because of the reality show that's who I really am. But that was just a character that I created. I didn't realize what a huge success [it would be...] With everything that's happening, though, with my business, I think people can understand that you couldn't possibly get this far being a dumb blonde".


title: Paris Hilton

text: "That's hot", "loves it" and "sliving" are Hilton's catchphrases. All three are registered as trademarks for products, like clothing apparel, electronic devices, and alcoholic beverages.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On September 6, 2007, Hilton filed an injunction lawsuit against Hallmark Cards Inc., titled "Hilton v. Hallmark Cards", in U.S. District Court over the unlawful use of her picture and catchphrase "That's hot" on a greeting card. The card is titled "Paris's First Day as a Waitress" with a photograph of Hilton's face on a cartoon of a waitress serving a plate of food, with a dialogue bubble saying "Don't touch that, it's hot" (which had a registered trademark on February 13, 2007). Hilton's attorney Brent Blakely said that the infringement damages would be based on profits from the greeting cards. Julie O'Dell said that Hallmark used the card as parody, protected under fair use law. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reviewed the case and "denied Hallmark's motion to dismiss". Hilton and Hallmark Cards Inc. later settled out of court.


title: Paris Hilton

text: A subject of press and public attention due to her extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, Hilton's media exploits started in the late 1990s, when she became a fixture in NYC's late-night circuit. A combination of what has been described as "vulgar Trump-era exhibitionism and "Girls Gone Wild" antics" led publications such as "Hamptons", "The New Yorker", and particularly "The New York Post", to often feature Hilton in their social columns. After her pictorial by David LaChapelle and September 2000 article for "Vanity Fair", Hilton was hailed as "New York's leading It Girl", whose fame was beginning to "extend beyond the [local] tabloids", by "The Guardian" in February 2001. The scandal involving her sex tape, which arose shortly before the December 2003 premiere of "The Simple Life", ultimately catapulted her into global fame and made her an overnight subject of media frenzy, paparazzi attention and public scrutiny. The sudden and unusual interest on her life led "Entertainment Weekly" to write that, "[w]e in the media have become Paris-ites". Similarly, CNN.com described her presence as an "staple of the daily news cycles" that became "impossible to escape". In an effort to "rehabilite her public image" and "capitalise" on the increased curiosity following the release of her sex tape, Hilton started to promote herself through different forms of mass media such as advertising, publishing and broadcasting.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Throughout the 2000s, a decade widely associated with her heyday, Hilton's media ubiquity fed the then-booming online gossip industry and cemented her "It Girl" status. The exposure nurtured an "ambivalent" but symbiotic relationship between Hilton and the press, from which both parties benefited. On different occasions, she has complained about the way she was treated by the media in her twenties, particularly about their narrative on her and constant presence in her proximity, whereas at other times she sought their attention and hand information to reporters herself. Moreover, she regularly planned public occurrences, described as "pseudo-events", with the purpose of being photographed and reported on. Sheeraz Hasan, who founded "Hollywood.TV" and briefly served as her media consultant, stated: "I built the foundation of one of the biggest paparazzi companies in the world on the back of Paris Hilton. I had over 100 guys in Los Angeles [...] all of them making a living off" Hilton. Emerging media outlets often received criticism for having a personality cult around figures such as Hilton, but "TMZ" founder Harvey Levin attributed their coverage on her to how it helped draw a high viewership to the website. Perez Hilton, on his part, purports to have befriended Hilton, who became the source of his stage name and frequent subject of his posts. It has been noted, for example, that he rarely reports on stories or rumors casting her in a negative or unflattering light, and that, unlike most gossip blogs, he often acknowledges and praises her positive achievements. In August 2006, YouTube promoted her eponymous debut album as part of its first targeted advertising launch.


title: Paris Hilton

text: The media's over-saturation on Hilton had reached a peak in 2007 amid her much-publicized legal problems at the time. She became the fifth most heavily covered story of the week of June 4 in North America. According to Pew Research Center, roughly a third of Americans (34%) followed news about Hilton very or fairly closely, with public interest in her surpassing that in the 2008 presidential campaign, The G8 summit, and talks between George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin. As a response, the Associated Press attempted to not mention her for the week of February 19, 2007, Mika Brzezinski refused to read a report about Hilton's release from jail on the June 26, 2007 broadcast of "Morning Joe", and "Us Weekly" published its first "100% Paris-Free" issue on June 29, 2007. Despite the institution of a Paris Hilton reporting ban, "Forbes" ranked her as the most "overexposed" celebrity a second time in 2008. A television campaign ad by the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign, in which McCain compared Barack Obama to celebrities such as Hilton and Britney Spears, prompted a direct response from her through a Funny or Die video entitled "Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad", which was viewed by more than seven million people in two days and received worldwide press coverage as well as written and verbal responses from both campaigns.


title: Paris Hilton

text: By December 2009, Hilton's presence in mass media had reportedly started to wane and become less noteworthy. That month, CNN.com published a story asking, "Why has Paris Hilton disappeared?", in which her absence from daily news circles was attributed to an over-saturated public and a new collective interest on other celebrities. In June 2011, her reality television series "The World According to Paris" failed to attract an audience amid a contentious promotional campaign and reported incidents on "The View" and "Good Morning America". In subsequent years, Hilton remained in the media spotlight, albeit was noted to have "somewhat receded from view". She developed an online and social media presence and, as of 2021, reached over 60 million users across her social platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. In March 2012, an experiment conducted by The Next Web concluded that Hilton generated less traffic than actor Charlie Sheen on Twitter. From that year onward, she has become a trending topic on the platform on several occasions. In 2020, according to a "Deadline" report, there were over 257 million views on videos mentioning her name on social media and her catchphrase "That's Hot" resulted in more than 4.8 billion impressions on TikTok. TikTok videos tagged with her name had collectively received more than 1.8 billion views, as of 2022. To date, her songs have amassed over 55 million streams on Spotify, while her YouTube channel has accumulated over 250 million views.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton interviewed singer Kim Petras for the Summer 2018 issue of "Paper" as well as rapper Saweetie for the Summer 2021 issue of "Wonderland". She wrote a profile on Britney Spears for the 2021 "Time" 100 listicle. Throughout her career, she has graced the covers of numerous international magazines, including US' "Ocean Drive", "FHM", "Maxim", "Elle", "Nylon", "Variety", and "Paper"; UK's "Elle", "Es Magazine" and "Gay Times"; France and Turkey's "Vogue"; Spain's "Vanity Fair"; and New Zealand's "Remix".


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton has had two popular television characters loosely based on her real-life persona: London Tipton from "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (2005–2008) and Caroline Channing in "2 Broke Girls" (2011–2017). The "World of Warcraft" massively multiplayer online role-playing game has featured a character named Haris Pilton, labeled a "socialite", since the release of "" expansion on January 15, 2007. She is the source for the name of the celebrity gossip blog PerezHilton.com.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton has been parodied in the music videos for Pink's "Stupid Girls" (2006), and Falling in Reverse's "I'm Not a Vampire" (2011), the "South Park" episode "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset" (2004), "The Simpsons" episode "Homerazzi" (2007), and the Hollywood films "White Chicks" (2004), "Date Movie" (2006), "Epic Movie" (2007), and "Meet the Spartans" (2008). She has been dramatised in the television film "Paparazzi Princess: The Paris Hilton Story" (2008), by Amber Hay, who had spoofed Hilton in a viral 2007 YouTube video titled "Paris in Jail", and in the Lifetime biographical drama "Britney Ever After" (2017), by Jillian Walchuck. In the second, and thirteenth seasons of "RuPaul's Drag Race", she has been portrayed by Raven, Trinity the Tuck and Gottmik respectively. Comedians Breven Angaelica Warren (E! mock television series) and Maya Rudolph ("SNL"), and television personalities Tyra Banks ("The Tyra Banks Show") and Matt Lauer ("The Today Show") are among the figures who have spoofed Hilton's public persona.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In 2005, Madame Tussauds unveiled Hilton's wax figure to coincide with the release of "House of Wax". In 2006, she became a target of the street artist Banksy, when 500 copies of her album in 48 record shops across the United Kingdom were replaced with his own alternative version. His rework of the album featured remixes produced by himself and Danger Mouse. The track list contained satire song titles such as "Why Am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". He also changed the cover sleeve and booklet to display pictures of the singer topless. In 2017, she was one of the subjects of an art exhibit called "Nicole Richie's 2007 Memorial Day BBQ", which was unveiled at Brooklyn's THNK 1994 Museum. In "The Good Place" episode "The Brainy Bunch" (2018), an American-themed restaurant includes a wall art featuring an alternative Mount Rushmore formed by Hilton, David Hasselhoff, Judge Judy, and Hulk Hogan. She has also been a subject of other media depictions such as print biographies, documentaries and television specials.


title: Paris Hilton

text: A majority of the deride Hilton was subjected to during the early years of her career focused on what "Buzzfeed" later described as her "seemingly empty kind of notoriety". Her rise to fame coincided with society's increased fixation on celebrity and the internet becoming a more accessible medium. These factors, along with Hilton's own public profile, facilitated the insurgency of an unprecedented type of celebrity —which was initially promoted by reality television and has since intensified with the posterior growth of social media— whose displays of its private life became an unusual focus of public interest, and therefore, their own source of income. In retrospect, she is said to have set a precedent for launching a lucrative


title: Paris Hilton

text: In 2018, Lili Anolik, of "Vanity Fair", called Hilton a "21st-century thinker and pioneer reality-TV luminary", observing that, she "instinctively grasped that the great cultural contribution of the movies was movie stars". Anolik further said that since "anybody with a phone was now a potential cineaste" and "true movie stars require[d] raw presence, not refined acting skills", Hilton needed "only ever perform herself, or, rather, 'herself', a gorgeous blonde ditz, the modern-day Monroe". In 2020, "Los Angeles Times" editor Lindzi Scharf regarded her as "the woman who will likely go down in history for putting the 'i' in influencer". "GQ"s Carrie Battan had previously called her "the figure who set off Hollywood 2.0's Big Bang, the effects of which continue to radiate through the industry today. Hilton, the one who made it possible to be famous for doing nothing, was so sought-after in the [...] 2000s that you couldn't get her to walk to her mailbox without giving her a check". Bert Marcus, the director of the documentary "The American Meme" (2018), echoed that sentiment, remarking that she "paved the way for creating a brand and a celebrity out of being herself and she turned it into a phenomenon," while Instagram celebrity and entrepreneur The Fat Jew, who was one of the subjects in the aforementioned documentary, credited her for "inventing the way the world thinks about influence".


title: Paris Hilton

text: Her fame led her to lead the early 2000s popularization of reality television into mainstream pop culture. "Vice", in a 2015 profile, noted that after "The Simple Life" premiered in 2003, "cable channels began programming reality television shows. MTV's second golden age consisted of "The Hills"; Andy Cohen reinvented Bravo with a repertoire of "The Real Housewives", and TLC started teaching Americans about "Dance Moms" and "Honey Boo Boo"". "Dazed" once considered that every "[reality] star who cashes in after the series by collaborating with brands is essentially selling a sort of post-Hilton aspirational glamour". The Kardashian family, Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, Tila Tequila, Danielle Staub, Alexa Chung, Brittny Gastineau, and Snooki are some of the personalities who are said to have followed in her footsteps. Kim Kardashian acknowledged Hilton for "giving" her a career, while Tana Mongeau stated that the media personality "paved the way for me. A girl like me who is literally famous for nothing —Paris Hilton taught us how to make that a business, you know what I mean".


title: Paris Hilton

text: Considered a pop culture icon, Hilton managed to exert an influence on fashion, tabloid journalism, and an extent of Hollywood. The height of her fame contributed to the growth of what "The New York Times" described as a "misogynist" and intrusive celebrity culture, monopolized by tabloids and paparazzi. For instance, a paparazzi photograph of her, at that time, could range from US$8,000 to US$1 million, celebrity-focused newspapers and media agencies ("e.g." TMZ and Hollywood.TV) attributed part of their large viewership to their coverage on Hilton, and a network of gossip blogs such as PerezHilton.com emerged after she rose to fame. The clothing style that defined her image in her heyday —tracksuits, rhinestones, trucker hats and even "the accessory dog"— has become a popular fashion trend and helped popularize brands such as Juicy Couture and Von Dutch. The Julien Macdonald dress Hilton wore for her 21st birthday has been recreated numerous times, while a 2011 report from The Kennel Club associated her with "the upsurge of popularity" in "so-called handbag dogs". "People" magazine wrote in a March 2017 article: "For millennials, Paris Hilton has always been and will always be a living legend. The socialite has come to perfectly define not only the millennial fashion aesthetic, but also a bygone era of celebrity where social media was nonexistent, as were stylists, and getting papped while partying was simply de "rigueur"" (to get "papped" is to be followed and photographed by paparazzi).


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton has been discussed by journalists and scholars interested in the role of celebrities and their influence through the media. Feminist theorist Camille Paglia described her as a "groundbreaking" figure in Hollywood, while in her book "The Bling Ring", an account on the group of thieves who robbed Hilton's house, Nancy Jo Sales positioned her as a "celebrity symbol of how destructive individualism ruled the 2000s". On August 29, 2006, the mayor of Las Vegas proclaimed the day "Paris Hilton Day" and gave Hilton a key to the city. Her quote, "Dress cute wherever you go; life is too short to blend in", was added to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in September 2009.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Throughout Hilton's adulthood, numerous aspects of her personal life —particularly, her uninhibited and extravagant jet set lifestyle, her extensive list of friendships, relationships and romantic associations with other high-profile figures, heavy partying, and reported instances of inappropriate language— have drawn a large amount of media attention and public disapproval.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton is known for her love of small dogs, and has had a female Chihuahua named Tinkerbell among many other pets. Hilton was frequently seen carrying Tinkerbell (dubbed an "accessory dog") at social events and functions, and in all five seasons of television reality show "The Simple Life". In April 2015, it was reported that Tinkerbell had died at the age of 14. Hilton had a 300-square-foot home with air conditioning, heating, and designer furniture built for her pets at an estimated cost of US$325,000.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton resides in Beverly Hills, and owns an oceanfront property in Malibu as well as a penthouse in Manhattan.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In 2000, a then-19-year-old Hilton drew attention from tabloids when she and Leonardo DiCaprio were seen together on the NYC late-night circuit. That led to one of her first magazine profiles, with "Vanity Fair", in which she denied that they were involved. She dated actor Edward Furlong in 2000, and poker player Rick Salomon, with whom she filmed her sex tape, in 2001. She was engaged to fashion model Jason Shaw from 2002 to 2003. They have reportedly remained friends since their split. She had a seven-month relationship with singer Nick Carter in 2004; Carter opened up about their relationship in his 2013 autobiography. "Paris was the worst person in the world for me to hook up with," he wrote. "[She] fed my worst impulses as far as partying."


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton started dating Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis in December 2004, and they became engaged seven months later. In November 2005, they called the wedding off. She next had a relationship with another Greek heir, Stavros Niarchos, whom she dated on and off between December 2005 and March 2007. Hilton dated Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden from February until November 2008. An on and off relationship with "The Hills" star Doug Reinhardt followed, but they broke up definitely in April 2010, when she became concerned that he was using her to further his career. She next had a one-year relationship with Las Vegas nightclub owner Cy Waits. She dated Spanish model River Viiperi between 2012 and 2014, and businessman Thomas Gross between 2015 and 2016. Actor Chris Zylka proposed to her in January 2018, during a vacation in Aspen, after one year of dating. They called off their engagement in November 2018.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In December 2019, Hilton started a relationship with businessman Carter Reum. After becoming engaged on February 13, 2021, Hilton and Reum were married in Los Angeles on November 11.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In 2003, a sex tape featuring Hilton and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked onto the Internet shortly before the premiere of "The Simple Life". Salomon filed a lawsuit against the company that distributed the tape, and against the Hilton family, whom he accused of tarnishing his reputation by suggesting that he had exploited Hilton. Hilton later sued the company that released the tape, Kahatani Ltd., for $30 million for violation of privacy and emotional distress.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Under the title "1 Night in Paris", Salomon began distributing the tape himself in April 2004 through the adult film company Red Light District Video. In July 2004, Salomon dropped his lawsuit against the Hilton family after Paris Hilton's privacy lawsuit was thrown out of court. Salomon and Red Light District Video agreed to pay Hilton US$400,000 plus a percentage of the tape's sale profit. In 2013, Hilton made a claim that she never made money off her sex tape:"[I] never made a dollar. I make enough money in nice ways. My fragrance [line] makes enough, I don't need to worry about that."


title: Paris Hilton

text: On September 7, 2006, Hilton was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%. In November 2006, Hilton's driver's license was suspended, and on January 22, 2007, she pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge. Her sentence was 36 months' probation and fines totaling about US$1,500. On February 27, 2007, she was stopped for driving with a suspended license, and she signed an agreement that she was not permitted to drive. The next month, she was caught driving 70 mph in a 35-mph zone without headlights at night with a suspended license. Prosecutors in the office of the Los Angeles City Attorney charged that these infractions and her failure to enroll in a court-ordered alcohol-education program violated her probation. On May 4, 2007, Hilton was sentenced by Judge Michael T. Sauer to 45 days in jail for the probation violation. She planned to appeal the sentence, supporting an online petition (created on May 5 by Joshua Morales) asking California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a pardon. Hilton changed lawyers and dropped her plans to appeal.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton was required to begin her jail term on June 5, 2007, and entered the Century Regional Detention Facility (a women's prison in Lynwood, California) after attending the 2007 MTV Movie Awards on June 3, 2007. On June 7, 2007, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca signed an order resentencing Hilton to 40 days of home confinement with an electronic monitoring device due to an unspecified medical condition. Baca said, "My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice." He added, "The special treatment, in a sense, appears to be because of her celebrity status ... She got more time in jail." Judge Michael Sauer summoned her to reappear in court the following morning (June 8), since her original sentence specified imprisonment: "No work furlough. No work release. No electronic monitoring." At the hearing, Sauer declined a briefing in chambers by Hilton's attorney on her medical condition and sent her back to jail to serve the original 45-day sentence. When she heard the decision, Hilton shouted "It's not right!" Screaming, she asked to hug her mother. Hilton was moved to the medical wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, and returned to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood on June 13. Paris Hilton was released from jail on Tuesday, June 26, 2007.


title: Paris Hilton

text: The socialite was influenced by minister Marty Angelo in jail, referring to a "new beginning" in an interview with talk-show host Larry King on June 28, 2007 (two days after her release) and quoting from Angelo's autobiography ("Once Life Matters: A New Beginning"). On June 9, Angelo unsuccessfully petitioned Sauer to let him serve the remainder of Hilton's sentence if the judge would release her to an alternative treatment program. Hilton told King during the interview that she had taken Adderall for ADHD since childhood.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On July 2, 2010, Hilton was accused of smoking marijuana at the 2010 FIFA World Cup game between Brazil and the Netherlands. Although she was escorted from the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium by local police, the case was later dismissed. Her publicist, Dawn Miller, said: "I can confirm that the incident was a complete misunderstanding and it was actually another person in the group who did it". Two weeks later, Hilton was detained and released after she was caught with cannabis at Corsica's Figari Sud-Corse Airport.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On August 27, 2010, Hilton was arrested by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of cocaine possession in Las Vegas and her boyfriend, Cy Waits, was charged with driving under the influence. Hilton and Waits were booked into the Clark County jail, where Hilton was kept handcuffed on a booking room bench, fingerprinted, photographed and released without bail. Hilton's defense initially claimed that the handbag (containing 0.8g of cocaine) was not hers: "This purse in question was a high street brand – and by no means up to her high fashion standards."


title: Paris Hilton

text: She later claimed personal items (including cash and credit cards) from the bag, acknowledging that it was hers. To avoid a felony conviction, Hilton pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors on September 17, 2010. Under the terms of the plea bargain she was sentenced to one year of probation, 200 hours of community service, a US$2,000 fine and the completion of a drug-abuse treatment program on September 20. Clark County District Attorney David Roger said, "If she was arrested for anything besides a minor traffic violation she will spend a year in jail. There will be no discussion. The court will have no discretion."


title: Paris Hilton

text: On September 21, 2010, on their way to a Tokyo press conference to promote fashion and fragrance lines, Hilton and her sister Nicky were stopped by immigration officers at Narita Airport because of Hilton's drug-possession conviction the previous day. Under Japan's strict drug laws, travelers convicted of a drug crime are usually denied entry into the country. Airport officials questioned Hilton "for hours", and she and Nicky were detained overnight at the airport hotel. On September 22, Japanese authorities denied Hilton entry, and she was put on a plane back to the United States. Other stops on their Asian promotional tour were canceled due to Indonesia and Malaysia's anti-drug laws.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Between 2008 and 2009, Hilton's home was burgled several times by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated thieves. She was the group's first and main celebrity target, with a majority of the stolen property belonging to her, though over fifty homes in Los Angeles County, California were reportedly targeted. Having chosen her because they figured she was "dumb" enough to leave "a door unlocked" or "a lot of money lying around", the group used Google Earth to find a place to access her gated community. They discovered a key under the doormat outside her home, but then realized it was not needed because the door was unlocked. They reportedly ended up burgling Hilton's residence six other times. It was not until nearly US$2 million were stolen in jewelry, clothing, cash, and other items from Hilton that she reported having been burgled. Antics during the burglaries included snorting cocaine, which a member alleged they found inside the residence. A Hilton representative denied the claims. She agreed to having the 2013 film "The Bling Ring" shot in her house where the burglaries took place.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On January 22, 2007, her private life became public on ParisExposed.com, a website with images of personal documents, video and other material allegedly obtained when the contents of a storage locker rented by Hilton were auctioned in lieu of a US$208 payment. The website, which charged for online access to the material, had 1.2 million visitors in just over 40 hours. Among its contents were medications, diaries, photographs, contracts, love letters and a video shot by Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild. Hilton obtained a temporary injunction against ParisExposed.com which shut down the website.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In August 2010, Nathan Lee Parada was arrested after security men spotted him wielding two knives outside Hilton's house. He was found guilty on one felony count of attempted first-degree residential burglary and was sentenced to two years in state prison. In October 2010, James Rainford bicycled past guards at the entrance to her gated community, went to her house, and began pounding on her door. He was arrested and earned three years' probation, along with a restraining order from Hilton. In April 2011, Rainford was arrested a second time for attacking her boyfriend Cy Waits outside Van Nuys Superior Court, where Hilton was headed to testify against Nathan Lee Parada, and he was arrested again in July outside her Malibu, California beach house. He was charged with two felony stalking counts and three misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order, but a judge found him to be "mentally incompetent to stand trial" and he was sent to a state mental hospital.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On September 20, 2012, an audio of what was perceived as homophobic comments made by Hilton, leaked onto the Internet. Following the backlash caused, she issued an apology through GLAAD.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In November 2013, an "obsessed fan", flew a plane over Malibu with two banners, one of which read, "Can't Get Paris Whitney Hilton Out of My Mind." The other read, "Mr. & Mrs. Hilton, may I court your daughter Paris?". The same person reportedly posed as a flower deliveryman to gain access to her gated community, where he left her a classic Cadillac, in 2015. In October 2014, Lukas Redanz, a man who was completely covered with tattoos of Hilton and appeared to be "extremely drunk", was arrested after he reportedly went to her gated community "to see her". In December 2014, Hilton filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department after receiving anti-Semitic messages on social media from a man who believed she was Jewish; he threatened to rape and kill her.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Between 2015 and 2017, Hilton was the target of an identity theft scheme by Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan, a woman who used Hilton's credit cards to book a party at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel worth around $53,000. She also pretended to be Hilton in emails to her employees, convincing them to transfer $106,000 to her account, and hacked her sister Nicky and father Rick Hilton in an attempt to gain passwords to various other accounts. She also stole nude photos of Hilton from her iCloud account. Bkhchadzhyan was arrested in 2017 for bank fraud conspiracy, and was later sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.


title: Paris Hilton

text: As a public figure, Hilton has been a frequent guest at fundraising events around the globe, and regularly visits children's hospitals and orphanages when she is abroad. She has been involved with the Starlight Children's Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and is listed on the "First Families" of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which means she has donated US$100,000 or more to the hospital. In 2008, a room at the hospital was named in her honor, and for her charitable efforts, Starlight and the American Humane Association have awarded Hilton the 2011 Heart of Gold Award, and the 2014 National Humanitarian Award, respectively.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In 2011, Hilton supported the LGBT rights organization NOH8, and participated at the American Red Cross run to benefit relief effort in Japan, hosted by actor Josh Duhamel in Santa Monica, CA. In 2015, she raised US$100,000 for children with disabilities in Ibiza. In 2017, she donated 50 of her personal items to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Starlight Children's Foundation, and visited San Gregorio Atlapulco, Mexico, where she handed out food and clothes to the affected families following the 2017 Central Mexico earthquake, donated merchandise and a sum of US$350,000 to help rebuild seven homes that were affected.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In October 2018, Hilton hosted Rock The Runway, an event benefitting Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and The Sasha Project LA. 20 percent of the proceeds from her 2018 five-nail polishes line with Nail and Bone goes to Animal Haven, a New York-based non-profit rescue group. In June 2019, Hilton was part of the annual, all-female Cash & Rocket auto rally, which took place across Europe and raised money for Sumbandila, The Helen Bamber Foundation and Dream for Future Africa Foundation.


title: Paris Hilton

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hilton performed a DJ set at the virtual music festival #TrillerFest, to drive donations for No Kid Hungry and Music Cares, and a portion of the proceeds from her merchandise collection went to Frontline Foods and local restaurants feeding frontline workers.


title: Paris Hilton

text: The release of the documentary "This is Paris" (2020), in which Hilton spoke about the abuse she endured as a teen in a series of boarding schools such as Provo Canyon School, prompted an increase of interest on #BreakingCodeSilence, a viral movement organized by people who were sent in their youth to a "network of privately-owned, powerfully punitive, and often wilderness-based therapy programs, residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, group homes, boot camps, and faith-based academies". On October 9, 2020, she held a rally outside Provo Canyon School in Utah in protest of alleged abuse and programs for troubled teens.


title: Paris Hilton

text: On February 8, 2021, Hilton appeared before the Utah State Legislature to testify on behalf of a proposed measure that would require more government oversight of youth residential treatment centers and require them to document when they use restraints. During her testimony, Hilton said that she had been emotionally and physically abused during her 11-month stay at Provo Canyon School when she was 17. She accused staffers at Provo School of beating her, subjecting her to strip searches, force-feeding her medication, watching her shower, and sending her to solitary confinement without clothes as punishment. She was one of several former patients to testify about suffering abusive treatment at Provo School on behalf of the measure. On March 2, the Utah Legislature approved the bill, known as SB127. On October 20, Hilton held a press conference at the United States Capitol, with lawmakers Ro Khanna and Jeff Merkley, to advocate for the introduction of the Accountability for Congregate Care Act, which would establish a bill of rights with protections for children in such facilities.


title: Paris Hilton

text: According to "Forbes", Hilton earned about US$2 million between 2003 and 2004, US$6.5 million between 2004 and 2005, US$7 million between 2005 and 2006, and US$8 million between 2008 and 2009. By 2011, CNN.com reported Hilton's annual earnings to be over US$10 million.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In December 2007, Hilton's grandfather Barron Hilton pledged 97 percent of his estate (the Hilton family fortune) to a charitable organization founded by her great-grandfather Conrad Hilton: the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. As a result, his grandchildren's inheritance was reduced. An immediate pledge of US$1.2 billion (proceeds from the sale of Hilton Hotels Corporation) was made, with a further US$1.1 billion due after his death. Barron cited the actions of his father, Conrad Hilton, as the motivation for his pledge. Conrad (Barron's father) had also left 97 percent of his estate to the foundation, and Barron contested his father's will to regain a sizable amount of the family fortune in a settlement.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Much of Hilton's wealth comes from numerous endorsements as well as her retail business, which includes numerous product lines and stores, and has generated sales of over US$4 billion. Her regular fees for both DJing and personal appearances in parties and events have been reported to be between US$250,000 and US$1 million. In 2009, for instance, Hilton, 50 Cent and Lenny Kravitz received US$4 million for the 51st-birthday party of Ed Hardy founder Christian Audigier, and in 2014, she earned US$2.7 million for four nights work—US$347,000 an hour—as part of her two-month residence in Ibiza.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Donetsk People's Republic (; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, ) is a disputed entity created by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which claims Donetsk Oblast. It began as a breakaway state (2014–2022) and was then annexed by Russia in 2022. The city of Donetsk is the claimed capital city.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Pro-Russian unrest erupted in the Donbas region in response to the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. In April 2014, armed pro-Russian separatists seized government buildings and declared the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as independent states, which received no international recognition prior to 2022. Ukraine and others viewed them as Russian puppet states and as terrorist organisations. This sparked the War in Donbas, part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War which also saw the Russian occupation and annexation of Crimea. The Donetsk and Luhansk People's Militias occupied almost half of the two oblasts and were at war with the Ukrainian military for the next eight years.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 21 February 2022, Russia recognised the DPR and LPR as sovereign states. Three days later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, partially under the pretext of protecting the republics. Russian forces captured more of Donetsk Oblast, which became part of the DPR. In September 2022, Russia announced the annexation of the DPR and other occupied territories, following disputed referendums which were illegal under international law. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognise what it called the "attempted illegal annexation" and demanded that Russia "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw".


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Head of the Donetsk People's Republic is Denis Pushilin, and its parliament is the People's Council. The ideology of the DPR is said to combine various strands of Russian nationalism: Fascist, Orthodox, neo-imperialist and neo-Soviet. Russian far-right groups played an important role in the DPR, especially in its early days. Organizations such as the United Nations Human Rights Office and Human Rights Watch have reported human rights abuses in the DPR, including internment, torture, extrajudicial killings, forced conscription, as well as political and media repression. The Donetsk People's Militia has also been held responsible for war crimes, among them the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics are located in the historical Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine. Since Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Eastern and Western Ukraine typically voted for different candidates in presidential elections. Viktor Yanukovych, a Donetsk native, was elected as President of Ukraine in 2010. Eastern Ukrainian dissatisfaction with the government can also be attributed to the Euromaidan Protests which began in November 2013, as well as Russian support due to tension in Russia–Ukraine relations over Ukraine's geopolitical orientation. President Yanukovych's overthrow in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution led to protests in Eastern Ukraine, which gradually escalated into an armed conflict between the newly formed Ukrainian government and the local armed militias. The pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine was originally characterised by riots and protests which had eventually escalated into the storming of government offices.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 7 April 2014, between 1,000 and 2,000 pro-Russian rebels attended a rally in Donetsk pushing for a Crimea-style referendum on independence from Ukraine. Ukrainian media claimed that the proposed referendum had no status-quo option. Afterwards, 200–1000 separatists stormed and took control of the first two floors of the government headquarters of the Regional State Administration (RSA), breaking down doors and smashing windows. The separatists demanded a referendum to join Russia, and said they would otherwise take unilateral control and dismiss the elected government. When the session was not held, the unelected separatists held a vote within the RSA building and overwhelmingly backed the declaration of a Donetsk People's Republic. According to the Russian ITAR-TASS, the declaration was voted by some regional legislators, while Ukrainian media claimed that neither the Donetsk city council nor district councils of the city delegated any representatives to the session.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The political leadership initially consisted of Denis Pushilin, self-appointed as chairman of the government, while Igor Kakidzyanov was named as the commander of the People's Army. Vyacheslav Ponomarev became the self-proclaimed mayor of the city of Sloviansk. Ukrainian-born pro-Russian activist Pavel Gubarev, an Anti-Maidan activist, a former member of the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity paramilitary group in 1999–2001 and former member of the left-wing populist Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, proclaimed himself the People's Governor of the Donetsk Region. He was arrested on charges of separatism and illegal seizure of power but released in a hostage swap. Alexander Borodai, a Russian citizen claiming to be involved in the Russian annexation of Crimea, was appointed as Prime Minister, while Igor Girkin was made Defence Minister. Borodai had a past working for an openly anti-semitic and fascist Russian newspaper "Zavtra" which had called for pogroms against Jews.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 6 April, the group's leaders announced that a referendum on whether Donetsk Oblast should "join the Russian Federation", would take place "no later than May 11th, 2014." Additionally, the group's leaders appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to send Russian peacekeeping forces to the region.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On the morning of 8 April, the 'Patriotic Forces of Donbas', a pro-Kyiv group that was formed on 15 March earlier that year by 13 pro-Kyiv NGOs, political parties and individuals, issued a statement "cancelling" the other group's declaration of independence, citing complaints from locals.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Donetsk Republic organisation continued to occupy the RSA and upheld all previous calls for a referendum and the release of their leader Pavel Gubarev. On 8 April, about a thousand people rallied in front of the RSA listening to speeches about the Donetsk People's Republic and to Soviet and Russian music. Ukrainian media stated that a number of Russian citizens, including one leader of a far-right militant group, had also taken part in the events. The OSCE reported that all the main institutions of the city observed by the Monitoring Mission seemed to be working normally as of 16 April. On 22 April, separatists agreed to release the session hall of the building along with two floors to state officials. The ninth and tenth floors were later released on 24 April. On the second day of the Republic, organisers decided to pour all of their alcohol out and announce a prohibition law after issues arose due to excessive drinking in the building.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 7 May, Russian president Vladimir Putin asked the separatists to postpone the proposed referendum to create the necessary conditions for dialogue. Despite Putin's comments, the Donetsk Republic group said they would still carry out the referendum. The same day, Ukraine's security service (SBU) released an alleged audio recording of a phone call between a Donetsk separatist leader and leader of one of the splinter groups of former Russian National Unity Alexander Barkashov. In the call, the voice said to be Barkashov insisted on falsifying the results of the referendum. SBU stated that this tape is a definitive proof of the direct involvement of Russian government with preparations for the referendum.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Polling during this period indicated that around 18 per cent of Donetsk Oblast residents supported the seizures of administrative buildings while 72 per cent disapproved. Twelve per cent were in favour of Ukraine and Russia uniting into a single state, a quarter were in favour of regional secession to join Russia, 38.4 per cent supported federalisation, 41.1 per cent supported a unitary Ukraine with decentralisatised power, and 10.6 per cent supported the status quo. In an August 2015 poll, with 6500 respondents from 19 cities of Donetsk Oblast, 29 per cent supported the DPR and 10 per cent considered themselves to be Russian patriots.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Ukrainian authorities released separatist leader Pavel Gubarev and two others in exchange for three people detained by the Donetsk Republic.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 15 April 2014, acting Ukrainian President Olexander Turchynov announced the start of a military counteroffensive to confront the pro-Russian militants, and on 17 April, tensions de-escalated as Russia, the US, and the EU agreed on a roadmap to eventually end the crisis. However, officials of the People's Republic ignored the agreement and vowed to continue their occupations until a referendum was accepted or the government in Kyiv resigned.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The planned referendum was held on 11 May, disregarding Vladimir Putin's appeal to delay it. The organisers claimed that 89% voted in favour of self-rule, with 10% against, on a turnout of nearly 75%. The results of the referendums were not officially recognised by any government; Germany and the United States also stated that the referendums had "no democratic legitimacy", while the Russian government expressed respect for the results and urged a civilised implementation.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On the day after the referendum, the People's Soviet of the DPR proclaimed Donetsk to be a sovereign state with an indefinite border and asked Russia "to consider the issue of our republic's accession into the Russian Federation". It also announced that it would not participate in the Ukrainian presidential election which took place on 25 May.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The first full Government of the DPR was appointed on 16 May 2014. It consisted of several ministers who were previously Donetsk functionaries, a member of the Makiivka City Council, a former Donetsk prosecutor, a former member of the special police Alpha Group, a member of the Party of Regions (who allegedly coordinated "Titushky" (Viktor Yanukovych supporters) during Euromaidan) and Russian citizens. This government imposed martial law on 16 July.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Elections in the DPR and LPR were held on 2 November 2014, after the territories had boycotted the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election on 26 October. The results were not recognised by any country.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The DPR adopted a memorandum on 5 February 2015, declaring itself the successor to the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic and Bolshevik revolutionary Fyodor Sergeyev—better known by his alias "Artyom"—as the country's founding father.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 12 February 2015, the DPR and LPR leaders, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, signed the Minsk II agreement. According to the agreement, amendments to the Ukrainian constitution should be introduced, including "the key element of which is decentralisation" and the holding of elections in the LPR and DPR within the lines of the Minsk Memorandum. In return, the rebel-held territory would be reintegrated into Ukraine. In an effort to stabilise the ceasefire in the region, particularly the disputed and strategically important town of Debaltseve, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for a UN-led peacekeeping operation in February 2015 to monitor compliance with the Minsk agreement. The Verkhovna Rada did not ratify the changes in the constitution needed for the Minsk agreement.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 20 May 2015, the leadership of the Federal State of Novorossiya, a proposed confederation of the DPR and LPR, announced the termination of the confederation project.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 15 June 2015, several hundred people protested in the centre of Donetsk against the presence of BM-21 "Grad" launchers in a residential area. The launchers had been used to fire at Ukrainian positions, provoking return fire and causing civilian casualties. A DPR leader said that its forces were indeed shelling from residential areas (mentioning school 41 specifically), but that "the punishment of the enemy is everyone's shared responsibility".


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 2 July 2015, DPR leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko ordered local elections to be held on 18 October 2015 "in accordance with the Minsk II agreements". The 2015 Ukrainian local elections were set for 25 October 2015. This was condemned by Ukraine.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 4 September 2015, there was a sudden change in the DPR government, where Denis Pushilin replaced Andrey Purgin in the role of speaker of the People's Council and, in his first decision, fired Aleksey Aleksandrov, the council's chief of staff, Purgin's close ally. This happened in absence of Purgin and Aleksandrov who were held at the border between Russia and DPR, preventing their return to the republic. Aleksandrov was accused of "destructive activities" and an "attempt to illegally cross the border" by the republic's Ministry of Public Security. Russian and Ukrainian media commented on these events as yet another coup in the republic's authorities.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: After a Normandy four meeting in which the participants agreed that elections in territories controlled by DPR and LPR should be held according to Minsk II rules, both postponed their planned elections to 21 February 2016. Vladimir Putin used his influence to reach this delay. The elections were then postponed to 20 April 2016 and again to 24 July 2016. On 22 July the elections were again postponed to 6 November.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In July 2016, over a thousand people, mainly small business owners, protested in Horlivka against corruption and taxes, which included charging customs fees on imported goods.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 2 October 2016, the DPR and LPR held primaries in were voters voted to nominate candidates for participation in the 6 November 2016 elections. Ukraine denounced these primaries as illegal. The DPR finally held elections on 11 November 2018. These were described as "predetermined and without alternative candidates" and not recognised externally.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 16 October 2016, a prominent Russian citizen and DPR military leader Arsen Pavlov was killed by an improvised explosive device in his Donetsk apartment's elevator. Another DPR military commander, Mikhail Tolstykh, was killed by an explosion while working in his Donetsk office on 8 February 2017. On 31 August 2018, Head and Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko was killed in an explosion in a cafe in Donetsk. After his death Dmitry Trapeznikov was appointed as head of the government until September 2019 when he was nominated mayor of Elista, capital of Kalmyk Republic in Russia. According to Ukrainian authorities, 50 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes with Donbas separatists in 2020.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In January 2021, the DPR and LPR stated in a "doctrine Russian Donbas" that they aimed to seize all of the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast under control by the Ukrainian government "in the near future." The document did not specifically state the intention of DPR and LPR to be annexed by Russia.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The general mobilization in the Donetsk People's Republic began on 19 February 2022 – 5 days before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Tens of thousands of local residents were forcibly mobilized for the war. According to the Eastern Human Rights Group, as of mid-June, about 140,000 people were forcibly mobilized in the DPR and LPR, of which from 48,000 to 96,000 were sent to the front and the rest to logistics support.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 21 February 2022, Russia recognised the independence of the DPR and LPR. The next day, the Federation Council of Russia authorised the use of military force, and Russian forces openly advanced into the separatist territories. Russian president Vladimir Putin declared that the Minsk agreements "no longer existed", and that Ukraine, not Russia, was to blame for their collapse. A Russian military attack into Ukrainian government-controlled territory began on the morning of 24 February, when Putin announced a "special military operation" to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, around 55% of Donetsk Oblast came under the control of Russia and the DPR by June 2022. In the south of Donetsk Oblast, the Russian Armed Forces laid siege to Mariupol for almost three months. According to Ukrainian sources, an estimated 22,000 civilians were killed and 20,000 to 50,000 were illegally deported to Russia by June 2022. A vehicle convoy of 82 ethnic Greeks was able to leave the city via a humanitarian corridor.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 19 April 2022, a town hall assembly was reportedly organized in Russian-occupied Rozivka, where a majority of attendees (mainly seniors) voted by hand to join the Donetsk People's Republic. This came despite two hurdles: the raion was outside the borders claimed by the DPR, and the raion had not existed since 18 July 2020. The vote was claimed to be rigged, and organizers threatened anyone voting against it with arrest.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 21 May 2022, the town of Oskil in the Kharkiv Oblast was declared part of the DPR. The town was later recaptured by Ukrainian forces during the Kharkiv Counteroffensive.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and as of July 2022 vice chairman of the Russian Security Council, in July 2022 shared a map of Ukraine where most of Ukraine, including DPR, had been absorbed by Russia.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: "Der Spiegel" reported that forcibly recruited men from Donbas were used as cannon fodder. According to DPR officials, more than 3,000 were killed and over 13,000 wounded, "a casualty rate of 80 percent of the initial fighting force." Human rights activists reported a huge – up to 30,000 people as of August 2022 – death toll among mobilized recruits in clashes with the well-trained Armed Forces of Ukraine. On 16 August 2022, Vladimir Putin stated that "the objectives of this operation are clearly defined – ensuring the security of Russia and our citizens, protecting the residents of Donbass from genocide."


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 20 September 2022, the People's Council of the Donetsk People's Republic scheduled a "referendum" on the republic's entry into Russia as a federal subject for 23–27 September. On 21 September, Russian President Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia. He said that "in order to protect our motherland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to ensure the safety of our people and people in the liberated territories", he decided to declare a partial mobilization. On 12 October 2022, the United Nations General Assembly voted in Resolution ES-11/4 to condemn the annexation. The resolution received a vast majority of 143 countries in support of condemning Russia's annexation, 35 abstaining, and only 5 against condemning Russia's annexation.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In early April 2014, a Donetsk People's Council was formed out of protesters who occupied the building of the Donetsk Regional Council on 6 April 2014. "The New York Times" described the self-proclaimed state as neo-Soviet, while Al Jazeera described it as neo-Stalinist and a "totalitarian, North Korea-like statelet". Administration proper in DPR territories is performed by those authorities which performed these functions prior to the war in Donbas. The DPR leadership has also appointed mayors. Some sources described the "Donetsk People's Republic" during this period as a Russian puppet government.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 5 February 2020, Denis Pushilin unexpectedly appointed Vladimir Pashkov, a Russian citizen and former deputy governor of Russia's Irkutsk Oblast, as the chairman of the government. This appointment was received in Ukraine as a demonstration of direct control over DPR by Russia.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Several Russian officials were appointed to cabinet posts and prime ministership of the DPR in June and July 2022.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Political parties active in the DPR include Donetsk Republic, the Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic, Free Donbas, and the New Russia Party. Donetsk Republic and the Communists endorsed Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko's candidature for the premiership in 2014. In the ensuing 2014 elections, the Communists were banned from participating independently because they had "made too many mistakes" in their submitted documents. Donetsk Republic gained a majority in the DPR People's Soviet with 68.53% of the vote and 68 seats. Free Donbas, including candidates from the Russian-nationalist extremist New Russia Party, won 31.65% of the vote and 32 seats.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In March 2016, the DPR began to issue passports despite a 2015 statement by Zakharchenko that, without at least partial recognition of DPR, local passports would be a "waste of resources". In November 2016 the DPR announced that all of its citizens had dual Ukrainian/Donetsk People's Republic citizenship.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In June 2019, Russia started giving Russian passports to the inhabitants of the DPR and Luhansk People's Republic under a simplified procedure allegedly on "humanitarian grounds" (such as enabling international travel for eastern Ukrainian residents whose passports have expired). Since December 2019 Ukrainian passports are no longer considered a valid identifying document in the DPR and Ukrainian licence plates were declared illegal. Meanwhile, the previous favourable view of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the DPR press was replaced with personal accusations of genocide and "crimes against Donbas", and proposals of organising a tribunal against him in absentia. In March 2020 Russian was declared to be the only state language of the DPR;<ref name="2020/03/06/russkij"></ref> previously in its May 2014 constitution, the DPR had declared both Russian and Ukrainian its official languages.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: According to the Ukrainian press, by mid-2021, local residents received half a million Russian passports. Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff Dmitry Kozak stated in a July 2021 interview with "Politique internationale" that 470,000 local residents had received Russian passports; he added that "as soon as the situation in Donbass is resolved...The general procedure for granting citizenship will be restored."


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Donbas People's Militia was formed by Pavel Gubarev, who was elected People's Governor of Donetsk Oblast and Igor Girkin, appointed the Minister of Defence of the Donetsk People's Republic.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On 10 January 2020 president of the non-recognised pro-Russian Abkhazia accused DPR of staging a coup in his country. DPR commander Akhra Avidzba was commanding on the spot. Unlike South Ossetia, Abkhazia had not then recognised DPR.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: OSCE monitors met with the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk, Volodymyr Pavlenko, on 20 June 2014. According to him, sewage systems in Sloviansk had collapsed, resulting in the release of least 10,000 litres of untreated sewage into the river , a tributary of the Seversky Donets. He called this an "environmental catastrophe", and said that it had the potential to affect both Russia and Ukraine.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: As of May 2014, the Ukrainian Government was paying wages and pensions for the inhabitants of the DPR. The closing of bank branches led to problems in receiving these, especially since the National Bank of Ukraine ordered banks to suspend financial transactions in places which are not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities on 7 August 2014. Only the Oschadbank (State Savings Bank of Ukraine) continued to function in territories controlled by the DPR, but it also closed its branches there on 1 December 2014. In response, tens of thousands of pensioners have registered their address as being in Ukrainian-controlled areas while still living in separatist-controlled areas, and must travel outside of separatist areas to collect their pensions on a monthly basis.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In October 2014, the DPR announced the creation of its own central bank and tax office, obliging residents to register to the DPR and pay taxes to it. Some local entrepreneurs refused to register.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: According to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine a number of local mutinies have taken place due to unpaid wages and pensions, the council claims that on 24 November 2014, the local "Women Resistance Battalion" presented to Zakharchenko an ultimatum to get out of Donetsk in two months.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine reported that in the DPR, "parallel 'justice systems' have begun operating". They found this new judiciary to be "non-transparent, subject to constant change, seriously under-resourced and, in many instances, completely non-functional".


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In 2014, the DPR introduced the death penalty for cases of treason, espionage, and assassination of political leaders. There had already been accusations of extrajudicial execution. After 2015 a number of DPR and LPR field commanders and other significant figures were killed or otherwise removed from power. This included Cossack commander Pavel Dryomov, commander of Private Military Company ("ЧВК") Dmitry Utkin ("Wagner"), Alexander Bednov ("Batman"), Aleksey Mozgovoy, Yevgeny Ishchenko, Andrei Purgin and Dmitry Lyamin (the last two arrested). In August 2016 Igor Plotnitsky, head of LPR, was seriously injured in a car bombing attack in Luhansk. In September 2016 Evgeny Zhilin (Yevhen Zhylin), leader of the separatist "Oplot" unit, was killed in a restaurant near Moscow. In October 2016 military commander Arseniy Pavlov ("Motorola") was killed by an IED planted at his house. In February 2017 a bomb planted in an office killed Mikhail Tolstykh ("Givi"). On 31 August 2018 DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko was killed by a bomb in a restaurant in Donetsk. The DPR and Russia blamed the Security Service of Ukraine; Ukraine rejected these accusations, stating that Zakharchenko's death was the result of civil strife in the DPR.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In May 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed four laws concerning decommunisation in Ukraine. Various cities and many villages in Donbas were renamed. The Ukrainian decommunisation laws were condemned by the DPR.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In addition to Ukrainian prisoners of war there are reports of "thousands" of prisoners who were arrested as part of internal fighting between various militant groups inside DPR.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, Brahim Saadoune have been sentenced to death. The DPR lifted the death penalty moratorium.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: According to a 2016 report by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Russian ethnic and imperialist nationalism has shaped the official ideology of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. During the War in Donbas, especially at the beginning, far-right groups played an important role on the pro-Russian side, arguably more so than on the Ukrainian side. Afterward, the pro-Russian far-right groups gradually became less important in Donbas as the need for Russian radical nationalists started to disappear.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: According to Marlène Laruelle, separatist ideologues in Donbas produced an ideology composed of three strands of Russian nationalism: Fascist, Orthodox, and Soviet.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Members and former members of Russian National Unity (RNU), the National Bolshevik Party, Eurasian Youth Union, and Cossack groups formed branches to recruit volunteers to join the separatists. A former RNU member, Pavel Gubarev, was founder of the Donbas People's Militia and first "governor" of the Donetsk People's Republic. RNU is particularly linked to the Russian Orthodox Army, one of a number of separatist units described as "pro-Tsarist" and "extremist" Orthodox nationalists. Neo-Nazi unit 'Rusich' is part of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group in Ukraine which has been linked to far-right extremism.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Some of the most influential far-right nationalists among the Russian separatists are neo-imperialists, who seek to revive the Russian Empire. These included Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, the minister of defence of the Donetsk People's Republic, who espouses Russian neo-imperialism and ethno-nationalism. The Russian Imperial Movement, a white supremacist militant group, has recruited thousands of volunteers to join the separatists. Some separatists have flown the black-yellow-white Russian imperial flag, such as the Sparta Battalion. In 2014, volunteers from the National Liberation Movement joined the Donetsk People's Militia bearing portraits of Tsar Nicholas II.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Other Russian nationalist volunteers involved in separatist militias included members of the Eurasian Youth Union, and of banned groups such as the Slavic Union and Movement Against Illegal Immigration. Another Russian separatist paramilitary unit, the Interbrigades, is made up of activists from the National Bolshevik (Nazbol) group Other Russia. An article in "Dissent" noted that "despite their neo-Stalinist paraphernalia, many of the Russian-speaking nationalists Russia supports in the Donbass are just as right-wing as their counterparts from the Azov Battalion".


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In July 2015, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, said at a press conference that he respected Ukraine's far-right party Right Sector "when they beat up the gays in Kyiv and when they tried to depose Poroshenko".


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: While far-right activists played a part in the early days of the conflict, their importance was often exaggerated, and their importance on both sides of the conflict declined over time. The political climate in Donetsk further pushed far-right groups into the margins.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In April 2022, news outlets noted that a video posted on Donetsk People's Republic's website showed Denis Pushilin awarding a medal to Lieutenant Roman Vorobyov (Somalia Battalion) while Vorobyov was wearing patches affiliated with neo-Nazism: the "Totenkopf" used by the 3rd SS Panzer Division, and the "valknut". However, the video did not show Vorobyov getting his medal when it was posted on Pushilin's website.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) initially sought recognition as a sovereign state following its declaration of independence in April 2014. Subsequently, the DPR willingly acceded to the Russian Federation as a Russian federal subject in September–October 2022, effectively ceasing to exist as a sovereign state in any capacity and revoking its status as such in the eyes of the international community. The DPR claims direct succession to Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: From 2014 to 2022, Ukraine, the United Nations, and most of the international community regarded the DPR as an illegal entity occupying a portion of Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast "(see: International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War)". The Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), which had a similar backstory, was regarded in the exact same way. Crimea's status was treated slightly differently since Russia annexed that territory immediately after its declaration of independence in March 2014.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Up until February 2022, Russia did not recognise the DPR, although it maintained informal relations with the DPR. On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognised the DPR and the LPR at the same time, marking a major escalation in the 2021–2022 diplomatic crisis between Russia and Ukraine. Three days later, on 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the entire country of Ukraine, partially under the pretext of protecting the DPR and the LPR. The war had wide-reaching repercussions for Ukraine, Russia, and the international community as a whole "(see: War crimes, Humanitarian impact, Environmental impact, Economic impact, and Ukrainian cultural heritage)". In September 2022, Russia made moves to consolidate the territories that it had occupied in Ukraine, including Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. Russia officially annexed these four territories in September–October 2022.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Between February 2022 and October 2022, in addition to receiving Russian recognition, the DPR was recognised by North Korea (13 July 2022) and Syria (29 June 2022). This means that three United Nations member states recognised the DPR in total throughout its period of "de facto" independence. The DPR was also recognised by three other breakaway entities: the LPR, South Ossetia (19 June 2014), and Abkhazia (25 February 2022).


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Ukrainian government passed the "" on 16 September 2014, which designated a special status within Ukraine on certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADLR), in line with the Minsk agreements. The status lasted for three years, and then was extended annually several times.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: In January 2015, Ukraine declared the Russia-backed separatist republics in Donbas to be terrorist organizations.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Russia has recognised identity documents, diplomas, birth, and marriage certificates and vehicle registration plates as issued by the DPR and the LPR since 18 February 2017, enabling people living in DPR-controlled territories to travel, work, or study in Russia. According to the decree, it was signed "to protect human rights and freedoms" in accordance with "the widely recognised principles of international humanitarian law".


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: On February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed agreements on friendship, cooperation, and assistance with DPR and the LPR, coinciding with Russia's official recognition of the two quasi-states. The Russian State Duma had approved a draft resolution appealing for him to recognize both quasi-states on 15 February. Shortly afterwards, Abkhazia also recognized the independence of the DPR.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: According to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, a number of European politicians from extreme-right and extreme-left have received all-expenses-paid trips to the Donetsk People's Republic.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: As well as Russian far-right groups (see "#Right-wing nationalism"), the DPR has cultivated relations with other European far-right groups and activists. The Lansing Institute for Global Threats and Democracies Studies acquired a memorandum of cooperation between the DPR and the far-right Russian Imperial Movement, which trains foreign volunteers; including members of the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division and Der Dritte Weg. Professor Anton Shekhovtsov, an expert on far-right movements in Russia and abroad, reported in 2014 that Polish neo-fascist group "Falanga", Italian far-right group "Millennium" and French Eurasianists had joined the Donbas separatists. Members of Serbian Action have also joined the Donbas separatists.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: According to Italian newspaper "la Repubblica", well-known Italian neo-fascist Andrea Palmeri (former member of the far-right New Force party) has been fighting for the DPR since 2014, and was hailed by DPR leader Gubarev as a "real fascist". Other far-right activists with links to the DPR include French far-right MEP Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, Italian nationalist Alessandro Musolino, German neo-Nazi journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter, and Emmanuel Leroy, a far-right adviser to Marine Le Pen, former leader of the National Rally.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Finnish neo-Nazis have been recruited for pro-Russian forces by Johan Bäckman and Janus Putkonen, who are aligned with the local far-right pro-Russian party Power Belongs to the People. Putkonen also runs the Russian-funded DONi (Donbass International News Agency) and MV-media, which publish pro-Russian propaganda about the DPR.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The DPR has also cultivated relations with various far-left groups. A small number of Spanish socialists travelled to Ukraine to fight for the separatists, with some explaining they were "repaying the favour" to Russia for the USSR's support to Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Spanish fighters founded the 'Carlos Palomino International Brigade', which flew the flag of the Second Spanish Republic. In 2015, it reportedly had less than ten members, and was later disbanded.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: A female member of the Israeli Communist Party also reportedly fought for the separatists in 2015. Other examples of far-left groups fighting for the separatists were the 'DKO' (Volunteer Communist Unit) and the Interunit, which has been inactive since 2017.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The Italian communist ska punk group Banda Bassotti has also been active in support of the DPR and has organized trips to Donetsk, one of which saw the participation of Eleonora Forenza, a member of the European Parliament for the Communist Refoundation Party. Andrej Hunko, a member of the German parliament for the far-left party Die Linke, also travelled to Donetsk to support the separatists.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The DPR has its own central bank, the Donetsk Republican Bank. The republic's economy is frequently described as dependent on contraband and gunrunning, with some labelling it a mafia state. Joining DPR military formations or its civil services has become one of the few guarantees for a stable income in the DPR.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: By late October 2014, many banks and other businesses in the DPR were shut, and people were often left without social benefits payments. Sources (who declined to be identified, citing security concerns) inside the DPR administration have told Bloomberg News that Russia transfers 2.5 billion Russian rubles ($37 million) for pensions every month. By mid-February 2016 Russia had sent 48 humanitarian convoys to rebel-held territory that were said to have delivered more than 58,000 tons of cargo including food, medicines, construction materials, diesel generators and fuel and lubricants. President Poroshenko called this a "flagrant violation of international law" and Valentyn Nalyvaychenko said it was a "direct invasion".


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: "Reuters" in late October 2014 reported long lines at soup kitchens. In the same month in at least one factory, workers no longer received wages, only food rations.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: By June 2015, due to logistical and transport problems, prices in DPR-controlled territory are significantly higher than in territory controlled by Ukraine. This led to an increase of supplies (of more expensive products and those of lower quality) from Russia. Mines and heavy-industry facilities damaged by shelling were forced to close, undermining the wider chain of economic ties in the region. Three industrial facilities were under DPR "temporary management" by late October 2014. By early June 2015, 80% of companies physically located in the Donetsk People's Republic had re-registered on territory under Ukrainian control.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: The new ruling elites of the DPR have displaced the previous oligarchic structures in the region. The new powerholders expropriated profitable businesses. For instance, Rinat Akhmetov lost control over his assets in the region after they were nationalised. Under Russia's guidance, the republic set up trade and production monopolies through which the trade in coal and steel is organised. Lacking private banks, its own currency, and direct access to the Black Sea, DPR's survival depends exclusively on Russia's economic support and trade through the common border.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: A DPR official often promised financial support from Russia without giving specific details. Prime Minister Aleksandr Zakharchenko in late October 2014 stated that "We have the Russian Federation's agreement in principle on granting us special conditions on gas (deliveries)". Zakharchenko also claimed that "And, finally, we managed to link up with the financial and banking structure of the Russian Federation". When "Reuters" tried to get more details from a source close to Zakharchenko the only reply was "Money likes silence". Early October 2014 Zakharchenko stated, "The economy will be complete, if possible, oriented towards the Russian market. We consider Russia our strategic partner". According to Zakharchenko this would "secure our economy from impacts from outside, including from Ukraine". According to Yury Makohon, from the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies, "Trade volume between Russia and Donetsk Oblast has seen a massive slump since the beginning of 2014". Since Russia did not recognise the legal status of the self-proclaimed republic, all the trade it did with it was on the basis of Ukrainian law.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: DPR authorities have created a multi-currency zone in which both the rouble (Russia's currency) and the hryvnia (Ukraine's currency) can be used, and also the Euro and U.S. Dollar. Cash shortages are widespread and, due to a lack of roubles, the hryvnia is the most-used currency. According to Ukraine's security services in May 2016 alone the Russian government has passed US$19 million in cash to fund the DPR administration as well as 35,000 blank Russian passports.


title: Donetsk People's Republic

text: Since late February 2015, DPR-controlled territories receive their natural gas directly from Russia. According to Russia, Ukraine should pay for these deliveries; Ukraine claims it does not receive payments for the supplies from DPR-controlled territory. On 2 July 2015, Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn announced that he "did not expect" that Ukraine would supply natural gas to territory controlled by separatist troops in the 2015–2016 heating season. Since 25 November 2015 Ukraine has halted all its imports of (and payments for) natural gas from Russia.