Navalny receives "European Prize for Political Culture".
The Hans Ringier Foundation has awarded Alexei Navalny this year's European Prize for Political Culture. On Saturday in Ascona, TI, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, accepted the award on behalf of the imprisoned Russian opposition figure.
With Nawalny, a personality is being honored who embodies European values far beyond Russia, the media company Ringier announced.
"Alexei Navalny stands for the power of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Europe can only bow before his indomitability," the president of the Hans Ringier Foundation, Frank A. Meyer, was quoted as saying in the communiqué.
In a laudatory speech, former German President Joachim Gauck paid tribute to the laureate. He said that he made it possible for people in Europe to believe that there is another Russia beyond the criminal system of President Vladimir Putin.
The Europe Prize was awarded for the 17th time. It is endowed with 50,000 Swiss francs. Previous winners include politicians such as Jean-Claude Juncker, Jean-Claude Trichet, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Wolfgang Schäuble and Mario Draghi, as well as intellectuals such as the philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Peter Sloterdijk and the historian Heinrich August Winkler. (SDA)
