Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitri Muratov auctions prize medal for displaced children of Ukraine | International

The Russian journalist and Nobel Peace Prize 2021, Dmitri Muratov, auctioned this Monday in New York the commemorative medal of that award for a record amount of 103.5 million dollars (about 98 million euros) to help children displaced by the Russian offensive in the Ukraine. All proceeds from the auction, which coincided with the celebration of World Refugee Day on June 20, will go to support the humanitarian response of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), the company Heritage reported in a statement. Auctions, in charge of the sale. The identity of the buyer has not been revealed by the auction house.

The bidding started at $700,000 and quickly rose to $16.6 million, but suddenly a bidder made a $103.5 million phone bid that no one else matched. “The most important thing is that people know that there is a conflict and that we must help those who suffer the most,” said the journalist after the award medal was auctioned. Muratov also encouraged his initiative “to be an example for people to auction off their valuables to help Ukrainians.”

Dmitri Muratov is the director of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, considered the last independent print media outlet in Russia and highly critical of President Vladimir Putin and his government. The news of the auction has not yet been published by his newspaper, since this newspaper suspended its publication at the end of March until the fighting in Ukraine ends. Its journalists paralyzed its dissemination after receiving several warnings from Roskomnadzor — the Russian telecommunications supervisor — for his coverage of the conflict. The medium had already assumed the term to define the Russian military intervention established by the Kremlin; that is, “special military operation”.

“We have received yet another warning from Roskomnadzor. After this we suspend the publication of the newspaper on the website, on social networks and in print until the end of the “special operation on the territory of Ukraine. Sincerely, the wording of Novaya Gazeta”, Said his penultimate news. A few weeks later, the newspaper did change its cover to report an assault suffered by Muratov himself while traveling by train. Some strangers attacked him with red paint and acetone. Despite the recording and the investigation provided by him, the aggressors have not yet been arrested.

The Russian journalist, co-founder of Novaya Gazeta In 1991, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 with fellow Filipina journalist Maria Ressa for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace,” according to the Swedish committee. He pledged to donate some $500,000 of that prize to charity and dedicated it to the six journalists from his publication killed since 2000. That list included Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Russia’s war in Chechnya, who was assassinated in 2006. in the elevator of his apartment in Moscow.

a record figure

According to US media, the sale broke the record for any Nobel medal ever auctioned. “This award is unlike any other auction offer to date,” Heritage Auctions said in a statement before the auction. “Mr. Muratov, with the full support of his staff at Novaya Gazeta, allows us to auction his medal not as a collector’s item, but as an event that he hopes will have a positive impact on the lives of millions of Ukrainian refugees.”

Unicef ​​warned in early June that two children were dying in Ukraine every day due to fighting. In addition, he estimated that there were some 5.2 million displaced Ukrainian children, 2.2 million of them outside their country. Russian authorities acknowledged this week that there are some 300,000 minors in their country. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, at the beginning of June one of the six “safe schools” that the UN agency had in Ukraine and 256 medical centers had been destroyed, to which “hundreds of schools per year” could be added. the whole country”. Until June 20, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has identified 4,569 civilian deaths and 5,691 wounded in these almost four months of Russian offensive. In total, it confirms the death of 304 minors, although the United Nations admits that the figures will be “considerably higher” due to the delay in collecting them and the problems in the main areas of hostilities.

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