Dmitry Muratov, a Russian journalist, sold his Nobel Peace Prize for a stunning $103.5 million to help children displaced by the Ukraine conflict. Muratov and Maria Ressa of the Philippines shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
In 2021, Muratov was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for safeguarding Russian freedom of expression.Muratov, who co-founded Novaya Gazeta in 1991, and Maria Ressa of the Philippines won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
Both Ressa and Muratov are recognised for publishing investigations that enraged their governments’ leaders, and have become symbols of the fight for press freedom.
The rhetoric employed by the Kremlin to characterise the conflict with Ukraine, which Moscow refers to as a “special operation” to secure Russian security and denazify its neighbour, is closely followed by Russia’s mainstream media and state-controlled organisations. It is an unprovoked war of aggression, according to Kyiv and its Western supporters.
Muratov dedicated his Nobel Prize to the six Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been murdered since 2000, promising to donate around $500,000 of the prize money to charity.
“Mr. Muratov, with the full support of his staff at Novaya Gazeta, is allowing us to auction his medal not as a collectible but as an event that he hopes will positively impact the lives of millions of Ukrainian refugees.
The auction of Muratov’s prize surpassed the previous record for any Nobel medal that has been auctioned off, according to US media reports, with the previous highest sale reportedly fetching just under $5 million.
