The Diplomat
The European Parliament yesterday awarded Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny the annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in recognition of his struggle for human rights.
Navalny’s nomination was put forward by the European People’s Party and also received the support of the Renew Liberals, beating the Socialists and Greens’ proposal for an Afghan women’s group and that of the Conservatives, who proposed former Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez.
The award honours Navalny’s fight for freedoms in Russia. Poisoned in the summer of 2020, treated for months in a German hospital and imprisoned on his return to Russia, he is the main opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has persecuted his circle of collaborators and banned his foundations.
After learning of their candidate’s victory, the People’s Party reiterated its request to Putin to release the opposition leader, insisting that Europe demands the release of Navalny and the rest of Russia’s political prisoners.
In the last year, Moscow’s repressive drift and its distancing from the EU has marked the European bloc’s foreign policy, including a trip by the High Representative, Josep Borrell, to Russia in which he called for the release of the dissident, triggering tension with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who compared his situation with that of the Catalan independence fighters, who were imprisoned at the time.
The award ceremony will take place on 15 December during a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France). Given that Navalny has been in prison since February, it is most likely that his wife will receive the prize, according to parliamentary sources.
