The Russian activist Ildar Dadin has been awarded the Boris Nemtsov Prize, established to honor those fighting for democratic values in Russia. Dadin was sentenced to a prison term for staging anti-government protests.
Dadin after his release from prison Image: picture alliance/dpa/A. Zweigert/AP
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Ildar Dadin is a "courageous citizen, who has broken the wheels of a huge government machine meant for those obedient and silent": This is how the Russian politician and publisher Lev Schlossberg, who received the Boris Nemtsov Prize last year, described this year's winner.
"Dadin chose to lose his personal freedom in order to fight against the more universal lack of freedom," added Schlossberg at the ceremony in Bonn on Monday evening.
Dadin and four other finalists, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, had been shortlisted following an online public vote organized by Russia's liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
The other finalists included the journalist and human rights activist Zoya Svetova, the imprisoned activist Sergei Mokhnatkin and Maksom Losev, a schoolboy who had organized an anti-corruption demonstration in his hometown of Bryansk in late March.
The Boris Nemtsov Prize, named after the Russian opposition politician who was killed near the Kremlin in February 2015, was established last year. In 2017 and 2016, the award ceremony took place at Deutsche Welle in Bonn.
Ildar Dadin, the one-man protester
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"At all times, there are people who become symbols of resistance against the authoritarian system," said Vladimir Ashurkov, a close ally of Alexei Navalny and the executive director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation. He fled Russia following accusations of embezzlement, and was granted political asylum in the UK. Ashurkov told DW that Dadin had become such a symbol during the "new authoritarian time" in Russia, "representing the people."
Who is Ildar Dadin?
Ildar Dadin, a former security guard, quit his job to become a civil rights activist. He was the first and only prisoner convicted under a controversial new law that foresees a prison term of up to five years for multiple violations of public assembly regulations, such as unsanctioned protests.
In December 2015, Dadin received a three-year prison term after staging one-man protests targeting the Kremlin. The sentence was later reduced to two years and six months. Before his detention, the activist had been repeatedly spotted near Red Square in Moscow holding banners with slogans such as: "Putin - the shame of Russia," or "Putin, leave Ukraine alone." Amnesty International called Dadin's sentence "a shocking and cynical attack on freedom of expression." The organization also suggested that Russian authorities were using the new regulation "to fast-track peaceful protests to prison."
Lambsdorff: Dadin is a 'courageous man'
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In November 2016, Dadin secretly sent a letter to his wife from the penal colony in Karelia, in which he accused its staff and administration of beatings and torture. The letter was later published by Russian media. In February 2017, Russia's Constitutional Court ruled that Dadin's sentence must be reconsidered as not corresponding with the rules of procedure. The court also decided that the law under which Dadin had been convicted should be amended. The activist was released from prison shortly after the ruling.
Solidarity with Russian protesters
Not having obtained the necessary travel documents, Dadin wasn't able to attend the award ceremony in Bonn. Human rights activist Sergei Davidis received the prize on his behalf. In a video message recorded for the ceremony, Dadin says he keeps fighting for therule of law and human rights in Russia, adding that, to him, Boris Nemtsov is an "example of courage and fortitude."
At the award ceremony in Bonn, the participants expressed their solidarity with the Russian protesters who took to the streets on Monday. Lev Schlossberg underlined that the rift between Russian citizens and the government in Moscow was growing. "We have lived through another year without freedom," he said, adding that the citizens and the authorities in Russia don't trust each other.
"It has a symbolic dimension that this prize, which honors freedom, was being awarded on the day when tens of thousands of people across Russia took to the streets and paid for that with their freedom," Vladimir Ashurkov told DW. His boss, Alexei Navalny, was detained at the entrance door of his home in Moscow, before he could even join the protest. According to the police, the opposition leader was detained for calling on people to participate in an unsanctioned demonstration on Tverskaya Street near the Kremlin. Late in the evening, the court sentenced him to 30 days of arrest.
Who is Alexei Navalny?
Alexei Navalny is one of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders, having spearheaded protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been imprisoned in Russia since 2021.
Image: Imago Images/Itar-Tass/S. Fadeichev
Face of Russia's opposition
The lawyer-turned-political campaigner has been among the most prominent figures of Russia's opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Navalny came to prominence in 2008, when his blog exposing malpractice in Russian politics and among the country's major state-owned companies came to public attention. Revelations published on his blog even led to resignations, a rarity in Russian politics.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/V. Sharifulin
Disputed parliamentary elections
In 2011 Navalny was arrested for the first time. He ended up spending 15 days in prison for his role at a rally outside the State Duma in Moscow. A recent parliamentary election victory for Putin's United Russia had been marred by instances of ballot stuffing, reported by demonstrators on social media. Upon his release, Navalny pledged to continue the protest movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Stenin
Second jail term
After being reelected president in 2012, Putin ordered Russia's Investigative Committee to launch a criminal inquiry into Navalny's past. The following year the campaigner was charged and sentenced again, this time for five years, for alleged embezzlement in the city of Kirov. However, he was released the following day pending affirmation from a higher court. The sentence was later suspended.
Image: Reuters
Anti-Kremlin platform grows
Despite being embroiled in legal troubles, Navalny was allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. A second-place finish behind Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin was seen as an overwhelming success and galvanized the Russian opposition movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Navalny takes to social media
His anti-Kremlin rhetoric led Navalny to be banned from appearing on Russian state-owned television. That forced him to deliver his political message over social media and his blog. His talent for public speaking, punchy use of language and humorous mockery of Putin and his loyalists mobilized a legion of young followers.
Image: Alexei Navalny/Youtube
Presidential ambitions
In December 2016, the opposition leader announced the formal start of his campaign to run for the Russian presidency in March 2018. However, repeated accusations of corruption, which his supporters say are politically motivated, ultimately barred him from running for public office.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/K. Kudryavtsev
Moscow's biggest protests in 6 years
In February 2017, anti-corruption rallies across dozens of Russian cities led to the arrests of over 1,000 demonstrators, including Navalny. The protests, believed to have been the largest in the Russian capital since 2012, were spurred by a report published by Navalny linking Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to a property empire valued at billions of euros. Navalny was released 15 days later.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Evgeny Feldman for Alexey Navalny's campaign
Physically assaulted
Navalny was assaulted and hospitalized in April 2017 after being hit in the eye with a chemical green dye. The attack permanently damaged his right cornea. Navalny accused Russian authorities of stopping him from seeking medical treatment abroad due to the embezzlement conviction against him. He was eventually permitted by the Kremlin human rights council to travel to Spain for eye surgery.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Feldman
Repeated arrests
In 2018, Navalny was jailed for 30 days. After his release in September, he faced another 20-day stint. In April 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Russia had violated Navalny's rights by holding him under house arrest for most of 2014 during the Kirov embezzlement case.
Image: Reuters/M. Shemetov
Alleged poisoning
In July 2019, only weeks after being released from a 10-day jail sentence, Navalny was again jailed for 30 days for violating Russia's strict protest laws. The opposition leader accused Russia of poisoning him with an allergic agent while in jail.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/navalny.com
Raids and frozen assets
Using YouTube and social media, Navalny had amassed a following of millions by late December 2019. Then police raided his Anti-Corruption Foundation headquarters (pictured), detaining him in the process. His staff said officials wanted to confiscate their tech equipment. Just a few months later, in March, Navalny reported that his bank accounts and those of his family members had been frozen.
Image: Reuters/FBK Handout
A plane — and a coma
On August 20, Navalny's spokesperson announced the activist became violently ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing, and Navalny was rushed to a hospital in Russia's Omsk and later evacuated to Berlin's Charite clinic (pictured). Doctors said he was in a coma. Navalny's associates claimed he had been poisoned and pointed to previous attacks on the activist.
Image: Reuters/C. Mang
Back from the brink
Navalny was taken out of the coma less than three weeks later and was said to be responsive. Not long afterwards, he was posting on Instagram, saying he was slowly regaining strength following weeks of only being "technically alive." The German government said labs in France and Sweden both confirmed that Navalny had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
Navalny had promised to return to Russia and he did so, despite warnings that he would be arrested. He was taken into police custody shortly after arriving in Moscow. The dissident had said he was "not afraid of anything." He was ordered to spend two years and eight months in a penal colony for violating terms of his probation while recovering in Germany from his poisoning.
Image: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images
Further charges and years behind bars
Since being imprisoned in 2021, Navalny has faced even more charges and trials: in 2022, he was sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court, charges his supporters say are fabricated. Appearing via video from prison during a court hearing this spring, Navalny said he was now being charged with new alleged crimes that would further extend his time in prison.
Image: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo/picture alliance
