The editor of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta is auctioning his Nobel peace prize medal, with the proceeds to go to helping children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Dmitry Muratov led one of the last major independent media outlets critical of Vladimir Putin’s government after others either closed or had their websites blocked after the invasion of Ukraine. In March, Novaya Gazeta announced it was suspending operations for the duration of the war after it became a crime to report anything on the conflict that veered from the government line.
Muratov was awarded the Nobel peace prize medal last October. He later announced he would donate the $500,000 prize money to charity “to give the children refugees a chance for a future”. His 23-carat gold Nobel medal will go on sale in New York at 7pm ET (midnight BST) on Monday, coinciding with World Refugee Day. All proceeds will go to Unicef, to help child refugees from Ukraine.
In a video released by Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale, Muratov said he wanted the sale to be the “beginning of a flashmob, as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians”.
In an interview last month, Muratov said the auction was “an act of solidarity” with the 14 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, which he called “a tragedy”.
“If we look at the number of refugees, we basically have world war three, not a local conflict,” he said. “This has been a mistake, and we need to end it.”
Novaya Gazeta, established in 1993 after the break-up of the Soviet Union, investigated corruption inside and outside Russia as well as the long wars in Chechnya. Muratov dedicated his award to the memory of six of the paper’s journalists who were murdered for their work.
