Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny is awarded with the 2021 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in a ceremony at the emicycle of the European parliament in Strasbourg. His daughter, Daria NAVALNAYA, gives a speech in front of the plenary. Statement by David SASSOLI, EP President. This transcript is a result àof an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

plenary session

ceremony

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

NAVALNY, Alexei (RU)

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2021 (T)

NAVALNAYA, Daria

Award of the Sakharov Prize 2021: statement by Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Ladies and gentlemen, honourable colleagues, 2021 is the year in which we celebrate the centenary of Andrei Sakharov and his peaceful struggle to promote human rights, his courageous, the fight against the Russian and Soviet regime is the prise that we developed and which we are going to be handing over today.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Andrei Sakharov would probably be sad, but maybe also proud to know that for 30 years since the fall of communism, the prise which carries his name is being given to Alexei Navalny, his compatriot. But if this bitterness and sadness can be motivated because the political regime in Russia today is to be blamed for the prevention of organisation of civil society, to limit freedom of the press, to put political opponents in prison, without any doubt, Sakharov would be proud of the determination with which Alexei Navalny is fighting for human rights and for fundamental freedoms.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, The courage that Alexei has shown is something that causes admiration and surprise. He's been threatened, he's been tortured, he's been poisoned, he's been arrested, he's been incarcerated, but they have not been able to actually make him stop speaking. He has been fighting tirelessly for the Russian people.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, He's an activist fighting corruption. He was a candidate, a political candidate, and he's a blogger and he's a lawyer. In other words, his action for the freedom of thought, freedom of expression is here today and clearly recognised by us as an absolute value. As he said, once corruption prospers, if there is no respect for human rights. And I believe he's right.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, I think that the fight against corruption is a fight for the respect of human rights, of universal human rights. And it is surely a fight for human dignity, for good government and for the rule of law and in order to defend these principles, which Alexei has been put in prison he just almost lost his life. He's a political prisoner and on behalf of the European Parliament, I call upon his immediate release and unconditional release.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, As every year, I also urgently call upon all those that need to be released, those laureates who receive the Sakharov prize who are still in jail, to laureates of the 2020 Sakharov prize, and they have been unfairly condemned yesterday by the illegitimate government of Belarus to 18 and 15 years imprisonment. This is a shame because amongst the hundreds of political prisoners in Belarus, there are four Sakharov prise laureates.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, And other laureates of the Sakharov prize are suffering vexation. Dr Mukwege, who has to face up to an alarming increase of intimidation and death threats. This is also true for the 2009 Sakharov laureate, one of the most ancient voices for human rights in Russia. This is also subject to a process of liquidation in a world where authoritarian regimes and populist forces are attacking human rights and calling into question fundamental rights.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, All these Sakharov laureates and amongst them, of course, Alexei Navalny, all of them are showing all of us that put their example through their example. What it really means to fight for freedom. They are a source of inspiration for all of us who dream for a better society, a fairer society in Russia. But not only in Russia.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, The European Parliament will make all the efforts necessary to support their battles and to protect them. Myself and the European Parliament are hoping impatiently for the day when Alexei Navalny can come back to the European Parliament to actually personally receive the Sakharov prize.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, And now I shall be giving the floor to miss Navalnaya, the members of the European Parliament, from the member states of the European Union, some of them may be remotely, are very impatient to listen to your words. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, Hello.Thank you so much. This is truly incredible. Before I start my speech, I wanted to tell everyone how incredibly grateful I am to be here accepting this award for my father and at the same time, absolutely terrified. This is a big honour for me to be able to stand here in front of all of you. And as a 20 year old college student who doesn't know much about politics, I'm very much afraid and anxious to mess this up.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, When I first heard that my dad, Alexei Navalny, was given the Sakharov prise, I was extremely happy for two reasons. The first one, this is a tremendous honour. Recognition of his merits and high praise of the work that has been done and is continuing to be done by him and his co-workers. And most importantly, it's a signal to those tens of millions of citizens in my country who are continuing to fight for the better fate of Russia.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, I will also name the second reason, although it's little frank and awkward. My father is receiving this award from the European Parliament, and when you receive such an award, you get to come and speak in front of the European Parliament. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, he wasn't able to be here today.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, I thought to myself, well, I guess someone better run and get that ticket to Strasbourg and seize the opportunity to come and see this wonderful thing for myself. And over some time, I realised that this might actually be what the nightmare of myself and my family looks like. Me travelling to different conferences and summits, giving speeches in my dad's name.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, Sometimes he's even awarded something, but I'm the one travelling. I'm the one writing the speech and starting it with a joke while he is in jail. And I will continue travelling meanwhile reading articles about the horrible conditions my dad is being held in. It's not like there's much to do about it. So I travel and speak, and he continues to be held in confinement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, And this doesn't only concern Alexei Navalny. The last year's laureates, the Belarus opposition, are now mostly in prison. The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate died in prison. And here I asked myself today: why is it so hard to free from captivity those who are fighting for human rights? Why are they still thrown in jail, not only all over the world, but in European, geographically European countries in the 21st century?

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, Europe is great and almighty, the will of the European citizens is expressed by the resolutions of the members of the European Parliament and those are precise, correct and fair. Resolutions there are supported by the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand and the whole free world.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, But those who are like my father, continue sitting in prison watching more and more of their allies being thrown behind bars. You know, I've heard this many times. And sure, I will again, maybe even in the quarters after this ceremony.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, You know, they'll say to me, I understand why are you feeling this way. Because it concerns your family and close ones, but in the real world, however, we have to be more pragmatic. And in those hallways, I'll nod my head and say, yes, of course. What else I can say? I'm a 20 year old college student and I don't feel very comfortable arguing with with experience and responsible pragmatics.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, However, here today, taking advantage of the fact that I have the microphone, no one will take it away from me and I don't have to argue with anyone personally feeling impolite. I would like to oppose that pragmatism. This is the Sakharov prize.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, This is the Sakharov prize, and Andrei Sakharov was probably one of the most non pragmatic people on the planet. I don't understand why those who advocate for pragmatic relations with the dictators can't simply open the history books. It would be a very pragmatic act and having it done, it's very easy to understand the inescapable political law. The personification of dictators and tyrants never works.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, No matter how many people try to deceive themselves, hoping that another madmen who clings to power will behave decently in response to concessions and flirtations, it will never happen. The very essence of authoritarian power involves a constant increase in bets, an increase in aggression and the search for new enemies and those who once said, let's not push Lukashenko and continue the dialogue.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, When he was beating people up and throwing them behind bars, achieve only that now in order to sentence someone, Lukashenko has to stop a whole passenger plane. Another thing that pragmatists don't want to do for some reason, which urges them to remember about the expenses and economic losses, is simply to pick up a calculator and see how much their pragmatism costs, in particular to the European taxpayers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, Years of flirting with Putin made it clear to him that, to increase his ratings, he can start a war. How much worse will the world with Ukraine cost to Europe? Even now, with so many news on Russian troops coming to the Ukraine border, no one's really talking about it. No pragmatic trade corporation will recoup the share of the direct loss that will have to be incurred.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, Not to mention the cost of the time of the Western politicians like yourselves have already spent on solving the problem instead of dealing with their own affairs in their own countries. One of the opposition leaders, Boris Nemtsov, is killed was shot in the back right by the Kremlin. And then comes the pragmatists and say as well, We can't do much about it. Let's limit ourselves to a tough statement and then continue the conversation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, And then, they'll kill the second, and the third, and the fourth will be killed in the centre of Berlin, and the fifth in the UK. And then they also blow up some warehouses in Europe, and then they start killing with chemical weapons. And what we know is just unsuccessful assassination attempts.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, How many were successful? We already know that a real terrorist group has been created inside Putin's special services, killing citizens of my country without a hearing or trial without justice. They were close to killing my mother. They nearly killed my father, and none will guarantee that tomorrow European politicians won't start falling dead by simply touching a doorknob.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, And now you're already increasing the police budget. You give a lot of money to special services, spend billions on new ways to detect those toxic substances, and these are the consequences of pragmatism. Don't push it. We need to act carefully and not anger them, says the pragmatists.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, And tomorrow, dictators inspired by half measures of the western of the West will transport thousands of people to the border of the European Union, forcing women and children to storm the fences and secretly dreaming of someone being shot or trampled in the crowd. Let pragmatists answer.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, How much will cost to Poland, to Lithuania or to the entire European Union? They will answer to me. What do you want? These are sovereign states. They have their own governments. Our capabilities are very limited. Are you proposing a nuclear war to free the political prisoners? Of course, I don't propose starting a war.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, However, I will note that although it's not successful, it has started and there are real victims and they're using both cyber and chemical weapons. The fact that European banks frequently launder corrupted billions of the yachts of Putin's oligarchs continue being sensations on European Mediterranean.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, That 99 percent of top officials of Russia and Belarus directly involved in crimes are also freely allowed to travel in Europe, just like their families, are all sure signs that many of those who make decisions don't even try to win at least the small wars in this battle. They talk too much and think about the realm of politics, considering actions based on ideas and principles which frankly are naive and stupid.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, And you know what, it seems to me that the problem is that the desire to appeal to the dictators again and again, not to anger him, to ignore his crimes as long as it's possible, is not a pragmatic approach at all. It's time to say it straight: under the sign of pragmatism, there is cynicism, hypocrisy and corruption. There is a constant war between idealism and pragmatism.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, There are fierce battles in the European politics by even choosing the side of pragmatism should mean betraying your ideas. When I wrote to my dad and asked, what exactly do you want me to say in the speech, from your point?

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, He answered. 'Say that none can dare to equate Russia to Putin's regime. Russia is a part of Europe and we strive to become a part of it. But we also want Europe to strive for itself, to those amazing principles which are at its core, we strive for a Europe of ideas, the celebration of human rights, democracy and integrity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, And we don't want Europe of chancellors and ministers who dream of getting a job on the board of Putin's state owned companies or sailing on oligarchs yachts. Today on this stage, receiving this high amazing award for my father, Alexei Navalny, I thank you. And through all of you, I welcome the Europe of ideas and principles.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, European Union is an incredible miracle created by nations whose whole history is an endless war with each other, despite all the difficulties and problems however the EU and will encounter, I believe that in its future one day my country will become a part of it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daria NAVALNAYA, daughter of Alexei Navalny, To finish this speech, I want to quote a great compatriot of mine and to whom this award was named: 'My destiny was in some sense exceptional not because of false modesty, but because of a wish to be accurate, and I know that my destiny has turned out to be larger than my personality. I simply tried to live up to my own destiny. I hope we all have the strength to live up to our destinies'. Freedom for Alexei Navalny! Thank you.