The journalist daughter of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov on Tuesday received a million-euro ($1.1 million) Polish prize for championing democracy and human rights.
Zhanna Nemtsova, 31, picked up the annual Solidarity Prize at a ceremony in Warsaw, saying she hoped it would inspire many in Russia to believe "that it's worth continuing the fight, that we shouldn't give up."
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said the award "is dedicated to all the Russian patriots who believe that a larger and more beautiful Russia does not need to be a country feared by the entire world."
Nemtsova asked for a minute of silence to be held for her father, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was gunned down on February 27 in Moscow in an assassination the opposition blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian authorities deny any involvement.
Nemtsova announced in June that she had left Russia, slamming the climate of "violence and terror" whipped up by pro-Kremlin propaganda. Her lawyer said she had gone to Europe and had no immediate plans to return.
Until May she had worked for Russian business news channel RBK.
Poland set up the annual award last year to mark the 25th anniversary of its first semi-free elections, which heralded the demise of communism.
The name is a nod to the Solidarity trade union of anti-communist icon Lech Walesa, who went on to become president and a Nobel Peace laureate.
Walesa attended Tuesday's ceremony, as did last year's winner Mustafa Dzhemilev -- a 71-year-old Ukrainian lawmaker, Soviet-era dissident and leader of Crimea's Tatar community.
The journalist daughter of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov on Tuesday received a million-euro ($1.1 million) Polish prize for championing democracy and human rights.
Zhanna Nemtsova, 31, picked up the annual Solidarity Prize at a ceremony in Warsaw, saying she hoped it would inspire many in Russia to believe “that it’s worth continuing the fight, that we shouldn’t give up.”
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said the award “is dedicated to all the Russian patriots who believe that a larger and more beautiful Russia does not need to be a country feared by the entire world.”
Nemtsova asked for a minute of silence to be held for her father, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was gunned down on February 27 in Moscow in an assassination the opposition blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian authorities deny any involvement.
Nemtsova announced in June that she had left Russia, slamming the climate of “violence and terror” whipped up by pro-Kremlin propaganda. Her lawyer said she had gone to Europe and had no immediate plans to return.
Until May she had worked for Russian business news channel RBK.
Poland set up the annual award last year to mark the 25th anniversary of its first semi-free elections, which heralded the demise of communism.
The name is a nod to the Solidarity trade union of anti-communist icon Lech Walesa, who went on to become president and a Nobel Peace laureate.
Walesa attended Tuesday’s ceremony, as did last year’s winner Mustafa Dzhemilev — a 71-year-old Ukrainian lawmaker, Soviet-era dissident and leader of Crimea’s Tatar community.
