The Russian authorities recommended that Memorial refuse the Nobel Peace Prize. This was stated by the head of the board of the Russian branch of the organization Yan Rachinsky in an interview in the BBC radio program HARDtalk.
According to him, the reason for the dissatisfaction of the authorities is “unsuitable solaureates.” "Memorial" ignored this request, and in an interview with the BBC, Rachinsky called the decision of the Nobel Committee "remarkable", as it shows that state borders are not capable of dividing civil society.
Recall that this year the Nobel Peace Prize, in addition to Memorial, was awarded to the Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatsky and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties. The latter was founded in 2007 by human rights activist Alexandra Matveychuk, winner of the Defender of Democracy award from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Center is engaged in promoting democratic rights and freedoms in Ukraine and Europe, as well as supporting Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia.
Byalyatsky is the founder of the Belarusian human rights center Vesna, which helped collect information about detentions and arrests in Belarus. In July 2021, Byalyatsky was arrested in connection with his political activities; at the time of writing, he is in a Belarusian pre-trial detention center. The authorities of Belarus did not allow the human rights activist to attend the award ceremony, so his wife Natalia Pinchuk will go there instead.
