'Well done': Gorbachev hails Muratov's Nobel Prize win

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. First President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev has congratulated Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a press statement posted on Gorbachev Foundation’s website on Friday. "I congratulate this great, bold and honest man and journalist, my friend Dmitry Muratov. I will congratulate him personally as soon as I get in touch with him. Well done! Way to go!" it said. According to Gorbachev, the awarding of the prize is very good news. "It is not just news, it is an event," he emphasized. "It is a brilliant addition to our team of Nobel Prize winners. This prize enhances the significance of the press in the present-day world. I am confident that both winners deserve it." Earlier on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and Filipino journalist Maria Ressa "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." Dmitry Muratov is one of Novaya Gazeta’s founders, he was the newspaper’s editor-in-chief in 1995-2017 and resumed his position in 2019. Muratov is the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate in Russia’s recent history. Previously, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Soviet physicist and leading human rights activist Andrei Sakharov in 1975 and First Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Read more