2023 Free Expression Awards

Russian opposition leader

Accepted by Leonid Volkov, chief of staff for Alexey Navalny

Alexey Navalny has been poisoned, brutalized and banished to solitary confinement in prison for daring to defy Russian President Vladimir Putin. A politician who sought the Russian presidency in 2018, Navalny established an anti-corruption organization that chronicles the oligarchs who keep Putin in power. Using grassroots activism and social media to oppose Putin’s bloody regime, Navalny asks his country to imagine a different Russia. In 2020, he barely survived an assassination attempt by nerve-agent poisoning. Returning to Russia after recovering in Germany, he was arrested by authorities there. His story is told in the Oscar-winning documentary “Navalny.” His fearless activism continues from prison as he relays messages denouncing Russia’s relentless war with Ukraine. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Navalny’s message to his millions of supporters: “You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So don't be inactive.”