Dmitry Muratov, editor of the highly critical Russian Kremlin-based Novaya Gazeta newspaper, shared the award last year with fellow journalist Maria Ressa from the Philippines. But on Monday – World Refugee Day – his medal went up for auction and reached a staggering amount. Previously, the highest paid medal for the Nobel Prize was $ 4.76 million in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of DNA structure won him the Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his own. The full purchase price of the medal will benefit UNICEF’s humanitarian response to displaced children in Ukraine, Heritage Auctions said in a statement. Muratov, who was awarded the prize in October 2021, helped found the Novaya Gazeta and was its editor-in-chief when it closed in March amid a crackdown on journalists by the Kremlin and a public outcry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr Muratov’s idea was to auction off his prize, having already announced that he would donate the 40 407,000 accompanying cash prize to charity. The idea of the donation, he said, “is to give refugee children a chance for a future.” Picture: The 23ct Pic AP Gold Medal Once melted, the 175 grams of 23-carat gold contained in Mr. Muratov’s medal would be worth about .000 8,000. He said he hoped the sale would “become the beginning of a flash mob, as an example for people to auction off their valuables to help Ukrainians”. He added that it was important that international sanctions against Russia did not prevent humanitarian aid, such as drugs for rare diseases and bone marrow transplants, from reaching those in need. Image: UN estimates that some 8 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine – many of them children Mr. Muratov and Maria Resa, who each received their own medals, were honored for their struggles to maintain freedom of speech in their respective countries, despite being harassed by their governments and even death threats. Read more: Shocking figures show more than 8 million people displaced by conflictAll live updates and developments in the Ukraine war Mr Muratov has strongly criticized Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war that began in February, forcing nearly five million Ukrainians to flee to other countries for security, creating Europe’s worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. . Freelance journalists in Russia have been brought under control by the Kremlin, if not clear goals of the government. Since Putin came to power more than two decades ago, nearly a dozen journalists have been killed, including at least four who worked for Muratov’s newspaper. In April, Mr Muratov said he had been attacked with red paint while boarding a Russian train. Since its inception in 1901, there have been nearly 1,000 Nobel Prize winners honoring achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and the advancement of peace.
