APB's Dmitry Muratov, Russian Newspaper Editor, to Auction Nobel Peace Prize Medal to Help Ukrainian Refugees
25 Mar 2022
Russian journalist and APB exclusive speaker Dmitry Muratov has announced he will auction his Nobel Peace Prize Medal and donate the funds to help Ukrainian refugees. Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta—an independent Russian newspaper known for its reporting on governmental corruption and human rights violations—won the prize last year, along with Filipino American journalist Maria Ressa. The pair were honored for their “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.”
"Novaya Gazeta and I have decided to donate the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Medal to the Ukrainian Refugee Fund," he wrote on the newspaper’s website on Tuesday. "There are already over 10 million refugees. I ask the auction houses to respond and put up for auction this world-famous award."
In the article, Muratov also asked Russia to cease combat, exchange prisoners and provide humanitarian corridors.
Muratov co-founded the pro-democracy newspaper in 1993 with several other journalists. He was the newspaper's editor-in-chief from 1995 to 2017, and again assumed the position in 2019. In the 2000s, six of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists were murdered, including Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in 2006 while covering human rights abuses in Chechnya.
Funds from the sale of the Medal will go to The Foundation of Assistance to the Ukrainian Refugees, a non-profit that helps refugees from Ukraine.