Who is Dmitry Muratov?

Dmitry Muratov, a Russian journalist and a critic of Kremlin, auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize medal to help the children displaced in Ukraine over the last months. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF, media reports suggest.

It was Muratov’s idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. The idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.”

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Who is Dmitry Muratov?

Dmitry Muratov was born in the town of Kubyshev in USSR. The place is now known as Samara, Russia. He was born on November 30, 1960.

Not much is known about Dmitry Muratov’s educational background and family. However, it is known that he started out as a journalist for Soviet newspapers. After the USSR dissolved in 1991, he helped establish the newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’.

Four years after the ‘Novaya Gazeta’ became popular, Dmitry Muratov took over as the editor-in-chief. He was now leading a newspaper that advocated for democracy and freedom of expression in Russia.

According to the Nobel Prize website, the newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’ has criticised the Russian authorities for corruption, electoral fraud and human rights violations under the leadership of Dmitry Muratov.

As editor-in-chief, Muratov has on several occasions criticised Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the government’s use of military force, both in and outside Russia. 

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Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. However, he had to share this with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines, Associated Press reported.

Dmitry Muratov’s newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’ shut down in March this year amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.