Steph Deschamps / June 21, 2022
Dmitry Muratov, Russian editor-in-chief of the independent investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize medal Monday for $103.5 million to benefit children displaced by the conflict in Ukraine.
The proceeds from the sale, which was won by an undisclosed telephone bidder, will be donated to UNICEF's program for Ukrainian children displaced by war, according to Heritage Auctions, which handled the sale.
The newspaper Novaya Gazeta announced at the end of March that it would suspend its online and print publications in Russia until the end of the intervention in Ukraine, in the midst of a hardening of the Kremlin against dissenting voices.
Dmitry Muratov was one of a group of journalists who founded Novaya Gazeta in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union. Before its operations were suspended, the newspaper was the last to express criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Novaya Gazeta is known for its investigations into corruption and human rights abuses in Chechnya.
This commitment has cost the lives of six of his collaborators since the 1990s, including the famous journalist Anna Politkovskaya, murdered in 2006. Dmitri Muratov dedicated his Nobel Prize to their memory.
In a video released by Heritage Auctions, the journalist says that winning the Nobel Prize gives you an opportunity to be heard.
In early April, Dmitri Muratov was attacked on a train in Russia by an unknown person who sprayed him with a red mixture of oil paint and acetone, causing burns to his eyes.