Russian donates $103.5 million to Ukraine
Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov donated his $500,000 Nobel Peace Prize cash award, says he wants to help child refugees have a better future. The Nobel Prize that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was auctioning off to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees sold Monday night for $103.5 million, shattering the old record for a Nobel. Dmitry helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Dmitry led one of the last major independent media outlets critical of Vladimir Putin’s government after others either closed or had their websites blocked after the invasion of Ukraine. In March, Novaya Gazeta announced it was suspending operations for the duration of the war after it became a crime to report anything on the conflict that veered from the government line. Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize sold his medal for $4.76 million. It was Dmitry’s idea to auction off his prize.
The idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.” Muratov has said the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine. In an interview with The Associated Press, Dmitry said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine. “We want to return their future,” he said. Independent journalists in Russia have come under scrutiny by the Kremlin, if not outright targets of the government. Since Putin came into power more than two decades ago, nearly two dozen journalists have been killed, including at least four who had worked for Muratov’s newspaper. In April, Dmitry said he was attacked with red paint while aboard a Russian train. In an interview last month, Muratov said the auction was “an act of solidarity” with the 14 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, which he called “a tragedy.” “If we look at the number of refugees, we basically have World War Three, not a local conflict,” he said. “This has been a mistake, and we need to end it.” Muratov also dedicated his award to the memory of six of the paper’s journalists who were murdered for their work. “We knew that there was a tremendous groundswell of interest in the last couple of days by people who were moved by Dimitry’s story, his act of generosity, that the global audience was listening tonight,” the Nobel spokesman said.
Censored Humor
A shipment containing 5,000 containers of Greek yogurt was supposed to be delivered to the U.S. Olympic team, but the Russian government blocked it because they said they didn’t fill out the required paperwork. Once again, the Russian government is doing everything they can to repress live and active cultures.
Many people are surprised to hear that we have comedians in Russia, but they are there.
They are dead, but they are there.
Q: What’s meant by a Communist exchange of opinions in the Soviet Union?
A: It’s when I come to a party meeting with my own opinion, and I leave with the party’s.
A newspaper kiosk in Russia: A man comes in, buys a newspaper, browses the headlines and throws it away. This repeats day after day, after a while the kiosk owner asks, “Say, why do you buy a newspaper but only read the headlines, what are you looking for?”
“An obituary”
“But they are way back in the newspaper.”
“The one I’m looking for will be a headline.”
December 13th Birthdays
1989 – Taylor Swift, 1950 – Wendie Malich, 1917 – Ann Richards, 1999 – Emma Corrin
1926 – Dick Van Dyke, 1964 – Bobby Flay, 1949 – Ted Nugent, 1967 – Jamie Foxx