The Prize was awarded to the assassinated Russian politician and statesman “for a life devoted to the promotion of democracy in Russia”.
The prestigious award presented by Senator John McCain was received by Deputy Chairman of the People’s Freedom Party Vladimir Kara-Murza, Boris Nemtsov’s old friend and close associate.
The Prize of Liberty has been awarded annually by the U.S. International Republican Institute since 1995 for significant personal contribution to the development of freedom and democracy in the world. The list of former winners includes such outstanding personalities as U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Pope John Paul II (posthumously) to name just a few.
This year the Prize was also awarded to the U.S. Congress Speaker John Boehner and a Sudanese entrepreneur and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim.