Europe 1 with AFP 3:56 p.m., October 20, 2021

Enemy number one of the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny was poisoned, imprisoned and saw his movement banned.

But, from the depths of his prison, the charismatic Russian opponent continues his fight against Vladimir Putin, which has earned him the 2021 Sakharov Prize.

The European Parliament awarded the 2021 Sakharov Prize for the defense of human rights and freedom of thought on Wednesday to the imprisoned Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, announced the president of this assembly, the Italian David Sassoli.

"He fought relentlessly the corruption of the regime of Vladimir Putin. It cost him his freedom and almost his life," said the President of the European Parliament on Twitter, who also reiterated the institution's call for "liberation. immediate "from Alexeï Navalny.

"Defend the values ​​of democracy"

The choice of Alexeï Navalny was immediately greeted by the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, against a backdrop of tensions between Russia and the West.

This award is "the recognition of the important role he has played for many years in defending the values ​​of democracy and being a strong voice in Russia," the head of the Atlantic Alliance told the press in Brussels.

Alexeï Navalny's candidacy was supported by the EPP (right), the main political group in the European Parliament, and the centrist group Renew, the third political force.

For their part, the S&D (left) and environmental groups had proposed to honor Afghan women fighting for equality and their freedom against the Taliban regime.

Poisoned in August 2020

Main opponent of Vladimir Putin, Alexeï Navalny is imprisoned for fraud in a case widely considered to be political repression.

He almost died of poisoning in August 2020, which Westerners attributed to Russian services.

Moscow has denied any involvement.

Navalny had been treated in Germany, which had strained relations between Berlin and Moscow, then he was imprisoned upon his return to Russia.

After the Uyghur intellectual Ilham Tohti, sentenced to life imprisonment in China for "separatism", winner in 2019, the prize bearing the name of the great dissident of the USSR Andrei Sakharov was awarded in 2020 to "the democratic opposition "to President Alexander Loukachenko in Belarus and received by his leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa.