Kremlin lauds critic’s ‘bravery’ after Nobel prize win
THE Kremlin has congratulated a Russian journalist who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for angering President Vladimir Putin, referring to Dmitry Muratov as “talented and courageous”.
Mr Muratov shared the award with Maria Ressa, from the Philippines, “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace”.
The 59-year-old is a long-time editorin-chief of Novaya Gazeta, a Russian daily newspaper known for its fearless coverage of atrocities in Chechnya and corruption scandals.
His wide contacts in the establishment have helped him to save the newspaper which is the only printed media in Russia uncompromisingly critical of the Kremlin.
After the prize winners were announced, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, congratulated Mr Muratov on the award, calling him a “talented and courageous” man.
“I’m laughing. I didn’t expect it,” Mr Muratov said after the announcement, adding that he had rejected an incoming call from Norway, the home of the peace prize, thinking it was spam. “We will use the award to stand up for the entire journalist community that is facing repressions right now,” he said.
A day earlier, Novaya Gazeta marked 15 years since Anna Politkovskaya, a star reporter who covered Russia’s wars in Chechnya, was gunned down in the hallway of her home in Moscow.
The hitman has been convicted, but Politkovskaya’s family says the investigators did not bring the mastermind to justice.
Mr Muratov said that he had dedicated his award to Politkovskaya and five other Novaya Gazeta reporters who have been killed in the past two decades. While other Russian media outlets have been destroyed and forced underground or to go abroad this year, Novaya Gazeta has managed to stay afloat thanks to Mr Muratov’s careful balancing act between being scathing of the Russian authorities but also maintaining ties with the Kremlin.
Independent Russian media has experienced an unprecedented crackdown this year as dozens of outlets and journalists have been described as “foreign agents”, a discriminatory status fraught with strict auditing and financial penalties.
Maria Ressa, 58, is the founder and chief executive of Rappler, an online publication known for combating disinformation and human rights abuses under the regime of Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine president.
Rappler rose to prominence for its relentless investigations into Mr Duterte’s ongoing war on drugs, which rights groups estimate has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, many of them gunned down by the police or by unidentified hitmen.
The International Criminal Court last month launched an investigation into the deadly anti-drugs campaign despite repeated criticism from Mr Duterte, who maintains that the court has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
However, like Mr Muratov, Ms Ressa has faced many attempts by the government to shut down her publication. She has also been the target of court cases that could result in many years in jail.
Hours after the Nobel Peace Prize announcement, the Kremlin labelled Bellingcat and nine reporters from other outlets “foreign agents”.
Bellingcat, the investigative journalism outlet, has long been a thorn in Mr Putin’s side, frequently unmasking clandestine KGB operations – including the individuals responsible for the poisonings of Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny.