All proceeds from the auction, which coincided with World Refugee Day on Monday, will benefit UNICEF’s humanitarian response to displaced children in Ukraine, Heritage Auctions, which sold in New York, said in a statement. Muratov’s Novaya Gazeta, which has been sharply critical of President Vladimir Putin and his government, suspended operations in Russia in March following warnings from the state to cover the war in Ukraine. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Pressure on liberal Russian media has continued under Putin, Russia’s top leader since 1999, but increased after Moscow’s troops were sent to Ukraine on February 24. Muratov was attacked with red paint in April. Read more ] Russia’s mainstream media and state-sponsored agencies have faithfully followed the language used by the Kremlin to describe the conflict with Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special operation” to secure Russia’s security and de-escalate its neighbor. Kyiv and its Western allies say it is an unprovoked offensive war. According to US media reports, the Muratov Prize auction broke the record for any Nobel medal auctioned, with reports saying that the previous highest sale was just under $ 5 million. “This award is unlike any other auction,” Heritage Auctions said in a pre-sale statement. “Mr Muratov, with the full support of his staff at Novaya Gazeta, allows us to auction off 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.” Muratov, who founded the Novaya Gazeta in 1991, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 along with Maria Resa of the Philippines for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace. “. Muratov, who has pledged to donate about $ 500,000 of the prize money to charity, has dedicated his Nobel Prize to the six Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been murdered since 2000. The list included journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Russia’s war in Chechnya, who was killed in 2006 in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reportage in Melbourne by Lidia Kelly. Edited by: Himani Sarkar and Michael Perry Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
