If Russian President Vladimir Putin sends out congratulations, it doesn't have to mean that he is wishing someone luck.

When it became known at the end of last week that half of the Nobel Peace Prize this year would go to a Russian, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Putin's spokesman emphasized the talent, idealism and courage of the winner: "We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov."

Friedrich Schmidt

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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However, several employees of the newspaper, which is critical of the Kremlin, paid for their work with their lives, and Putin's apparatus made no effort to solve the murders.

In addition, there was no answer to the crucial question: Can the Nobel Prize save Novaya Gazeta and its editor-in-chief from being targeted in the current campaign against independent media and journalists?

The most common form of repression in this area, often the entry into a chain of harassment, is to be classified as a "foreign agent".

Since Wednesday there has been a statement from Putin himself.

"Russian laws must be obeyed"

During the “Russian Energy Week”, the moderator, an American television journalist, asked the President whether he could rule out Muratov being declared an “agent”.

Putin was irritated.

"Listen, if he doesn't break Russian law and doesn't give cause to be declared a foreign agent, it means he won't," said the president, without naming Muratov.

“But if he covers himself with the Nobel Prize like a shield in order to do something that violates Russian law, it means that he is doing it consciously, to draw attention to himself or for some other reason.

Regardless of all merits, everyone must clearly understand: Russian laws must be obeyed. "

There are now so many excuses for declaring someone an "agent" that it can affect any Russian or foreigner.

It was mere symbolism that Putin's Human Rights Council now proposed that the awarding of foreign prizes not be seen as a reason to become an “agent”.

Putin's assumption that Muratov could break laws to seek attention is even a standard charge against opponents such as the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalnyj.

Muratov, if he had made the decision, would have awarded the latter the Nobel Peace Prize for the courage to have returned to Russia after the poisoning.

Its supporters would have liked to see Navalnyj as the winner.

He congratulated Muratow "wholeheartedly".