German prize goes to Navalny

Berlin: A German prize for democracy and freedom of expression was on Thursday awarded to imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his FBK anti-corruption foundation.

"Of course, we’ll keep going," Navalny’s close ally Leonid Volkov, who lives in exile, said as he accepted the M100 Media Award in Potsdam, just outside Berlin. Despite repression by the Kremlin, "we have proved that corruption is a human rights problem," Volkov added. Navalny’s FBK is in practice largely forbidden by court orders from any activity, including publishing content online, organising demonstrations or standing in elections.