Nov 21
VOC Presents Dissident Human Rights Award to Russian Dissident Leader Alexei Navalny
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation announced today that it has presented the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny with its 2021 Dissident Human Rights Award.
“There is no one on this planet more deserving right now of our Dissident Human Rights Award than Alexei Navalny,” said VOC Chairman Edwin Feulner. “Mr. Navalny’s courageous defense of free speech and free assembly has inspired tens of thousands of Russians to publicly challenge the authoritarian Putin regime. It is an outrage that Mr. Putin has again ordered the arrest of Navalny as well as hundreds of his supporters. We call for his immediate and unconditional release from prison. We call on the Biden Administration to take every possible action to effect Navalny’s release without delay.”
The pro-Navalny rallies in Moscow came just a week after Navalny returned from Germany where he recovered from a nerve agent poisoning in August during a trip to Siberia. As reported in the Washington press, Navalny was arrested soon after coming home. He has been accused of acting as a “foreign agent.”
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation awards its Dissident Human Rights Award annually to those individuals who have demonstrated life-long opposition to communism and all other forms of totalitarianism.
Established by public law in 1994, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation conducts a wide range of projects about the history, ideology, and legacy of communism. It is best known for its annual June ceremony at its Washington, D.C. memorial honoring the more than 100 million victims of communism and its educational and public policy outreach programs.
