Strasbourg, France/Moscow - Three Russian human rights activists who campaigned to shed light on the crimes of the Soviet Union have won the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, parliament president Jerzy Buzek announced Thursday. The award of the prize to Oleg Orlov, Sergei Kovalev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva "on behalf of (non-governmental organization) Memorial and all other human rights defenders in Russia" is likely to provoke fierce criticism in Russia, where the Memorial group is regularly accused of falsifying history by highlighting Soviet crimes.
Memorial, whose first leader was Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov, after whom the prize is named, "promotes the truth about the political repression of the USSR and fights against current human rights abuses in post-Soviet states," the parliament nomination ran.
The group was founded in the late 1980s to create a memorial complex to victims of Stalinist repression. It later expanded into a human rights organization focusing on democratic developments in states such as Russia, Ukraine and the South Caucasus.
Its stance on Soviet crimes has put it on a collision course with the Russian government, which portrays the Soviet era as a period of national greatness and sees those who accuse the USSR of crimes as betraying Russia and falsifying history.
Reacting to the announcement, Memorial said the prize was an "honour for Russia's civil rights movement as a whole."
However, a "bitter feeling" remained because the quest to ensure rule of law in Russia was being "sabotaged," Orlov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Despite the efforts of many activists in the field of human rights, Russia was moving "in the opposite direction," he said.
"In this regard, our efforts over the last year have not been fruitful."
Peter Franck, Russia expert at the Berlin office of international human rights watch Amnesty International said: "The award recognizes the outstanding work of human rights activists in an ever threatening situation in the Russian Federation."
A quarter of the 736 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) come from countries which were formerly dominated by the USSR. They have regularly criticized what they see as Russia's approval of Soviet crimes committed against their country.
Memorial was nominated for the prize by the head of the Polish conservative delegation in the parliament, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, and a mixture of conservative, left-wing and Green MEPs.
"Memorial's actions to fight for human rights and freedom are wide in scope and it groups together people of great courage, who are ready to sacrifice their lives. By giving this reward to Memorial, we are helping it continue its fight for fundamental freedoms and democracy," Saryusz-Wolski said in a statement.
The three Russians won the prize ahead of Swedish-Eritrean political prisoner Dawit Isaak and Palestinian doctor and peace activist Izzeldin Abuelaish.
The prize is worth 50,000 euros (75,000 dollars). It will be presented on December 16.
