A Pen for Peace

On October 10, for the first time since Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, a Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Russian. Dmitry Muratov, the longtime editor in chief of the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta (which apparently got seed funding from Gorbachev’s Nobel award), shared the award with Philipina journalist Maria Ressa.

Muratov, 60, has run the newspaper since 1995, apart from a two year hiatus. He was in charge when several of the newspaper’s reporters were killed, and dedicated the prize to them: Anna Politkovskaya, Igor Domnikov, Yury Shchekochikhin, Nastya Baburova, Stas Markelov and Natalia Estemirova.

Ironically, the Nobel’s announcement came one day after the investigation of Anna Politkovskaya’s 2006 murder was officially shelved: 15 years is the statute of limitations for murder under Russian law, and the mastermind behind her assassination in a stairwell will now never be brought to justice.

Muratov’s prize is also symbolic due to the unprecedented pressure of late by the government on the independent press. Besides the physical danger that many journalists investigating corruption and human rights abuses experience, in 2021 such work began to be officially branded as unpatriotic, and journalists stamped with the label “foreign agents” (see page 6), making their work all but impossible. Many outlets have been forced to leave Russia altogether, while individual correspondents have seen their careers destroyed.

The Nobel news was not welcomed by all in Russian society, however. Some commentators argued the decision was a cop out, and that it should have been awarded to jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who was strongly tipped for the win but is a more politically contentious figure. Muratov himself said that he would have supported Navalny’s nomination, had it been up to him.