Yan Rachinsky, the head of the Russian organization which was the co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, told BBC’s HARDtalk that the Kremlin requested he turn down the award because his Ukrainian and Belarusian co-laureates were “inappropriate.” Rachinsky, however, ignored the demand. “Naturally, we took no notice of this advice,” he told the BBC. Rachinsky is the head of civil rights group Memorial, which was created with the idea that “confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones,” according to the Nobel Committee which announced the awards. The organization, founded during the former Soviet Union, documented Soviet repression as well as modern civil rights abuses. In 2021, the organization was dissolved by the Russian government which claimed it had “persons who allegedly had ties to terrorist organizations,” according to the Nobel Prize website. The inclusion of a Russian recipient alongside civil rights leaders from Ukraine and Belarus was “controversial,” according to the BBC, and the head of the Ukrainian co-winner, Oleksandra Matviichuk of the Center for Civil Liberties, refused to speak beside Rachinsky.
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