Alexei Navalny symbolises, more than almost any other, what a severe price can be paid by those who engage in political and social activism.

He was poisoned in Russia with a prohibited nerve agent and only just survived this attempted murder. At present, he is serving a brutal sentence in a penal colony following an arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable conviction – as the European Court of Human Rights ruled not long ago. Awarding him this prize also issues an unmistakeable call to Russia to finally release Alexei Navalny!