Politician Alexei Navalny, who is serving a sentence in a colony in Vladimir, reported in social networks that he was dividing his 10-thousand-euro Boris Nemtsov Prize between four political prisoners. The money will be equally distributed between ex-coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters* in Arkhangelsk Andrei Borovikov, former videographer of FBK*,** Pavel Zelensky, and activists Vladislav Mordasov and Yan Sidorov from Rostov.
"I have 10 thousand euros at my disposal, which are very special: they are attached to the Boris Nemtsov Prize awarded to me. This is a great honor, and I find it somehow strange and impossible to just take and spend money on my family and me. Therefore, I asked Zhanna Nemtsova to divide this money into equal four parts of 2.5 thousand each and give them to the families of those who are worse off than me now," Alexei Navalny commented.
In April 2021, former coordinator of Navalny's headquarters* in Arkhangelsk and activist of Shies Andrei Borovikov was sentenced to 2.5 years in a general regime penal colony for reposting Rammstein’s “Pussy” music video on vk.com, considering it the distribution of pornography. In July, the Arkhangelsk Regional Court reduced his sentence by three months.
Videographer of the currently closed down Anti-Corruption Foundation*,** Pavel Zelensky was sentenced to two years in prison for two tweets in which he cursed the authorities and accused them of journalist Irina Slavina’s death, who committed suicide at the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Nizhny Novgorod. And activists Vladislav Mordasov and Yan Sidorov held a picket with posters "Return the land to fire victims in Rostov" and "The government should resign" at the government of Rostov Oblast on November 5, 2017. They were charged with attempting to organize mass riots and sentenced to 6.5 years in a high-security prison.
Navalny noted that Pavel Zelensky was serving his sentence in Penal Colony 2 of Tula, Yan Sidorov — in Penal Colony of Dimitrovgrad in Ulyanovsk Oblast, Vladislav Mordasov - in Penal Colony 9 of the town of Shakhty in Rostov Oblast. The politician suggested sending them letters of support. Andrei Borovikov has no address to send him letters yet: he was transferred from a detention center in Kirov to an unknown destination the other day.
In February 2021, the Boris Nemtsov Foundation awarded Alexei Navalny the Prize For Courage. The award's founders considered that the politician, having returned to Russia after an after-care in a German clinic, had not only demonstrated incredible personal courage, but "had also made an outstanding contribution to exposing corruption and increasing citizens’ engagement in Russia’s still-existing political procedures."
Zhanna Nemtsova, the eldest daughter of the murdered politician, opened the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom in 2015. Every year, the foundation awards the Boris Nemtsov Prize of 10 thousand euros for courage in the fight for democratic values and human rights. Politician Lev Shlosberg, member of the Solidarnost’ (‘solidarity’) Movement's federal political council Nadezhda Mityushkina, activists Ildar Dadin, Anastasia Shevchenko and Konstantin Kotov won the award over the years.
