“It wasn’t my choice to be under fire,” Yulia Navalnaya said at the annual Magnitsky Human Rights Awards held Thursday night in London. “It happened that my husband was killed by Vladimir Putin while he was in a Russian prison. And after that, he [Putin] labeled me as a terrorist.”
Navalnaya was presented with an award for her “Courage Under Fire.”
Her husband, Alexey Navalny, the leader of Russia’s opposition movement, was killed in the “Polar Wolf” penal colony above the Arctic Circle in February. Navalnaya has taken up his mantle, dedicating herself to advocating for democracy in Russia.
The Magnitsky awards ceremony is held each year by William Browder, who at one time was the largest foreign investor in Russia. That changed when authorities in Moscow went after him for income taxes he had already paid but corrupt Russian tax officials had stolen.
His lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, then 37 years old, was arrested for investigating the case and ultimately was killed in prison. The awards are part of his legacy.
“It’s a great honor to be here among friends, and it’s a great honor to receive this award named after Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who became a symbol of the violence and corruption of Vladimir Putin’s regime,” Navalnaya said.
“Sadly, the number of names and symbols of this regime have increased. It’s important to make the list shorter, not longer. It’s not me, but Vladimir Putin, who is a terrorist, and we are just normal people, fighting to live normal lives in normal democratic countries.”
After Magnitsky’s death in 2009, Browder, a British citizen, dedicated himself to this fight, earning a knighthood for his efforts this June.
Knowing the Kremlin would never act against those responsible for Magnitsky’s death, Browder decided to pursue justice in the United States. The result was the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law passed in 2012 that authorizes the U.S. government to impose sanctions on human rights abusers and corrupt officials.
Under that law, Washington placed visa bans and asset freezes on those deemed responsible for the fraud carried out against Browder and for Magnitsky’s subsequent torture and death after he investigated it.
The Magnitsky Act has gone global, with 35 countries having adopted similar legislation. More than 1,000 sanctions have been meted out in Magnitsky’s name around the world for human rights abuses and corruption.
“It has become the gold standard of how you go about punishing people who do terrible things, and there is a long list of people who have been sanctioned under Global Magnitsky, and a lot of people are now scared of being sanctioned,” Browder told Voice of America.
“I can imagine there are some people who might have done something in the past but don’t now because they don’t want their assets frozen around the world,” he added.
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, who wrote the original Magnitsky legislation, was also honored Thursday night in London for his lifetime of service.
“America’s strength is in our values. America’s foreign policy needs to be embodied with our values,” he told VOA. “America needs to stay at the forefront to make it clear we’re not going to put up with autocratic regimes that try to take away the rights of people.”
Cardin referenced another famous Russian opposition leader, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was recently released from prison.
“He was poisoned twice by Mr. Putin’s people in Russia and returned there. His life was definitely at risk, but he realizes he can make a difference. So my main message is, don’t give up hope,” Cardin said.
Kara-Murza has not stopped campaigning since his release from prison in August and was at the awards ceremony in London. When asked if he had a message for the incoming U.S. administration, he said he actually had one for all democratic countries.
“Stand on your values, because it is very important that these nations not only profess and talk about democracy and law and respect of human rights but act on these values,” Kara-Murza told VOA.
“We know from history that democracies work most effectively when they are working together and standing on values, and one of the most vivid examples of this was the prison exchange that liberated me from the hell of Vladimir Putin’s modern-day gulag. But let’s not forget that so many are left behind,” he said.
Kara-Murza added that democracies not only have the right but also the obligation to intervene in human rights crises such as the growing repression and political imprisonment in Russia.
Brandon Silver, director of policy and projects at the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, was part of the drive to free Kara-Murza. He was honored at Thursday’s awards ceremony for that, as well as his work on behalf of other political prisoners, from Gaza to Tehran.
He stressed that even if Russia’s war on Ukraine ends soon, the plight of Russian political prisoners must not be forgotten.
“Once these proposed peace negotiations come about, we must not forget about the release of these prisoners who are going to be the future of a post-Putin Russia,” Silver told VOA.
The focus of Thursday night’s awards ceremony in London moved beyond Russia, but it also hit very close to home.
Among those honored was Gubad Ibadoghlu, who taught at the London School of Economics and was arrested in Azerbaijan. According to his daughter, Zhala Bayramova, Ibadoghlu was arrested on bogus charges for investigating corruption and illicit money transfers from Azerbaijan to the U.K.
Bayramova received an award for her work to secure her father’s release from prison. His health failing, Ibadoghlu remains under house arrest.
Zahra Joya from Afghanistan, whose father disguised her as a little boy during Afghanistan’s first Taliban regime so she could sneak into schools and study, had to flee the country when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. From exile, she runs Rukhshana Media, dedicated to telling the stories of Afghan women.
“Receiving this award is deeply meaningful,” she said at Thursday’s awards ceremony. “It is not just recognition for me. It represents the struggles, sacrifices and challenges faced by human rights defenders everywhere.”
Remarking on the scope of Thursday night’s awards, Browder told VOA: “What it says is that there are a lot of bad things going on in the world, but when you come to an event like this, it also says there are a lot of heroes out there who are standing up. Oftentimes they feel alone, but when they are in the company of each other they don’t feel so alone,” he said.
Browder was echoed by many of those who received awards Thursday, as well as those who received them in the past. They said that despite the many losses they have collectively suffered, the Magnitsky award recipients have become a community of strength and optimism.
