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The European Parliament chose Russian Alexei Navalny as the winner of the Sakharov Prize 2021 for his role as a counterweight to the government of Vladimir Putin. The politician will most likely not be able to attend the delivery ceremony scheduled for December 15 as he has been imprisoned since February for breaching his parole while recovering from poisoning in Germany.
One of the fiercest enemies of President Putin, the opposition Alexei Navalny, won the Sakharov Prize 2021 on October 20. The European Parliament will announce him as the winner of the award, dedicated to freedom of conscience, on Wednesday afternoon.
Navalny, 45, was proposed as a candidate for the award by the liberal group Renew Europe, a choice that European conservatives also backed.
Finally, during the midday plenum at the conference of presidents of the European Parliament, her candidacy was supported by the majority over the other favorite: a collective of Afghan women in defense of human rights and equality, backed by the socialist group of the Camera. Also included as an option was the self-proclaimed former interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, whose legitimacy was questioned by political groups and NGOs.
Although the recognition is scheduled for December 15, the presence of Navalny will be more than difficult, since he has been imprisoned since February. The absence of the winner is common during the award ceremony, considered by many to be the prelude to the Nobel Peace Prize.
A few years ago, the former blogger opposed to the Putin government gained international recognition from social networks, where he demanded anti-corruption reforms. Later he would launch his candidacy for the national elections.
In August 2020, he was poisoned in Siberia with a toxic substance known as Novichok, a chemical agent used during the time of the Soviet Union. Navalny accused the Russian government of the assassination attempt. After several months of recovery in Berlin, where he was transferred, he returned to Moscow and was arrested when he landed in the city.
Along these lines, when presenting Navalny as a nominee for the award, the European Parliament highlighted “his courage in the fight for freedom, democracy and human rights”. But the dissident politician also has critics, since in 2001 he published a video with xenophobic content against Muslims on social networks in which he compared them to cockroaches.
In February this year, the politician was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for failing to comply with probation and failing to attend court summons for a fraud case while recovering in Germany.
Since he was admitted to a penitentiary in the Vladimir region, about 200 kilometers from Moscow, the opponent repeatedly denounced the treatment he received, the medical deficiencies and went on a hunger strike for 23 days in the form of protest.
Navalny had already received a candidacy for the Sakharov Prize in 2019, when he was arrested for calling an illegal demonstration that demanded that he be able to register non-official candidates in local elections, a proposal overthrown by local authorities.
On that occasion the dissident did not succeed, but this year he will win the highest award of the European Union for the defense of human rights, with an economic endowment of 50,000 euros.
With EFE and local media
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