Alexei and Yulia Navalny were awarded the “Media Freedom Award”

Alexey and Yulia Navalny became laureates of the international “Prize for Media Freedom”. They were awarded the prize for “the courage shown in the resistance movement” and for “the courageous and non-violent struggle against the brutal dictatorship in Russia.”

The award ceremony took place on April 19 at the annual Ludwig Erhard Summit on Lake Tegernsee in Germany. Yulia Navalnaya accepted the award on her own behalf and on behalf of her late husband.

“You are presenting this award to the two of us, me and Alexey. Two months ago, Putin killed him in prison. It turns out that I will continue to bear both halves of the award – both for myself and for Alexey. Continue to do what he did in the field of media freedom, and bring something of your own, – said Yulia Navalnaya during her speech at the award ceremony.

She emphasized that the Kremlin will come up with new tools for censorship, disinformation and lies: “This means that we will come up with new cunning tricks in order to continue to convey the truth in any conditions. As Alexey has always done.”

Broadcast of Yulia Navalnaya’s speech you can see in its entirety on Navalny’s YouTube channel LIVE.

• Alexei Navalny is one of the most famous Russian oppositionists and opponents of Vladimir Putin. He was sentenced to long terms of imprisonment on a number of political charges. In August 2020, he survived a poisoning attempt.
• Alexey Navalny, according to Russian authorities, died in the Polar Wolf colony in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug on February 16. The conclusion about his death states that the politician died of natural causes. Navalny’s supporters believe he was killed. During his imprisonment, he spent more than 300 days in a punishment cell.
• After the death of the politician, mourning pickets were held in Russian cities, the participants of which were detained en masse by police officers.
• In mid-April, the widow of Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya came in on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential women in the world. The text about her was written by US Vice President Kamala Harris.
• On April 11, it became known that Alexey Navalny wrote autobiographical book “Patriot”. The book will be published in 11 languages, including Russian. The first circulation will be 500 thousand copies. The manuscript is being prepared for publication in the USA by Knopf.
• The Media Freedom Prize was founded by the group’s publishers, Christiane Goetz-Weimer and Wolfram Weimer. The award is given to public figures who have performed exceptionally well in the fight for freedom of opinion, political dialogue and democracy. In 2023, Garry Kasparov became its laureate. Previously, Vladimir Zelensky and Mikhail Gorbachev were awarded it. Along with the presentation of the prize, one of the important events of the Ludwig Erhard Summit every year is the discussion “arena” of the leaders of political parties in Germany.