The Russian editor awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for championing freedom of speech is auctioning his medal to raise funds for Ukrainians who’ve been made into refugees by President Vladimir Putin’s war.
Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, was awarded the Nobel together with the journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines last year for their “courageous fight for freedom of expression.” He donated his approximately $500,000 prize money to charity and suspended publication of the newspaper in March after Russia passed legislation restricting reporting on the war, or what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation.”
The sale of his Nobel medal “has to become the beginning of a flash mob, an example to follow, so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainian refugees,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions, the New York auction house that is organizing the event.
