Karelian section of the online journal "7x7" won the National Award "Civil Initiative" 2016 of the Committee of Civil Initiatives in the category "New Word". The award ceremony took place on December 20 in Moscow.
While opening the ceremony, Chairman of the Committee of Civil Initiatives Alexei Kudrin said that participants may "prevent misfortune, help those who got into a difficult situation, interact with the government, carrying out public oversight and solving difficult social problems". "Our country develops due to such people. The competition has already helped many of the participants of previous years to obtain support for their projects, not only from active citizens, but also from local authorities and businesses," he concluded, stressing that he hoped that the regional authorities would be configured to cooperate with the nominees.
Director of «7x7» Pavel Andreev took the prize on behalf of the editorial board. He explained that representative of the Karelian section Gleb Yarovoy could not attend the ceremony, because of trial on his dismissal from the Petrozavodsk State University. "It seems that someone in Karelia does not like to hear a new word," ceremony host Maxim Vitorgan joked.
Information about winners in the other categories can be found on the official website of the award. They were chosen by the grand jury, which is composed of Alexander Arkhangelsky, Leonid Gozman, Yuli Gusman, Joseph Raihelgauz, Nikolai Svanidze, Irina Yasina and other members of the Committee of Civil Initiatives – 27 people in total. Alexei Kudrin is the head of the jury.
Award "Civil Initiative" was established in 2013. Its purpose is to "search for unknown heroes of modern Russia, who themselves, on their own initiative, are trying to change the country's life for the better and have already achieved real results, or are just beginning to realize their plans". Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Committee of Civil Initiatives Yuli Gusman run the project.
