Nobel Peace Prize: Russian laureate ‘told to turn down award’

A Russian human rights activist has told the BBC that he was ordered to turn down the Nobel Peace Prize by the Russian authorities.

Yan Rachinsky is from Memorial, one of three joint winners of this year’s accolade, alongside the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties, and Ales Bialiatski, who is in prison in Belarus.

Mr Rachinsky chose to accept the award and told Stephen Sackur of BBC’s HARDtalk: “In today’s Russia no-one’s personal safety is guaranteed”.

For more than 30 years, Memorial worked on uncovering the fates of the victims of Soviet political repression. It also exposed human rights abuses in present-day Russia, before being forced to close.

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