Euro-Parliament's Sakharov Prize goes to Alexei Navalny
Alexei Navalny - Photo Evgeny Feldman
(STRASBOURG) - The European Parliament on Wednesday awarded Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny the European Parliament's 2021 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Alexei Navalny is a Russian opposition politician, anti-corruption activist and major political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He came to international prominence for organising demonstrations against President Putin and his government, running for office and advocating for anti-corruption reforms.
In August 2020, Navalny was poisoned and spent months recovering in Berlin. He was arrested on his return to Moscow in January 2021.
He is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, with more than two years still remaining. Now incarcerated in a high-security penal colony, Navalny went on a long hunger strike in late March 2021 to protest his lack of access to medical care.
In June 2021, a Russian court banned Alexei Navalny's regional offices and his Anti-Corruption Foundation, both now classified as extremist and undesirable by the Russian authorities.
The Sakharov Prize has gone to Mr Navalny, said Parliament president David Sassoli, because "he has campaigned consistently against the corruption of Vladimir Putin's regime, and through his social media accounts and political campaigns, Navalny has helped expose abuses and mobilise the support of millions of people across Russia. For this, he was poisoned and thrown in jail."
Mr Sassoli added that in awarding the Sakharov Prize to Alexei Navalny, Euro-MPs recognised "his immense personal bravery and reiterate the European Parliament's unwavering support for his immediate release."
The Sakharov award ceremony will be held on 15 December in Strasbourg.