Tsikhanouskaya, Kalesnikava, Tsapkala become this year’s Lev Kopelev Prize awardees
Three prominent women of the Belarusian revolution – Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Maryia Kalesnikava, Veranika Tsapkala – were awarded the 2021 Lev Kovelev Prize for peace and human rights, Deutsche Welle reports.
The three protest leaders were singled out for their ‘courageous fight for democracy and against the falsification of the presidential election in Belarus’.
The award was established in 2001 in memory of Lev Kopelev, a Soviet author, researcher, human rights activist and dissident, who was forced out of the USSR in the early 80s.
Since the very beginning, the prestigious German prize has been presented in Cologne. This year, the award ceremony is to take place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Armin Laschet, the Minister-President of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is expected to deliver a speech at the event.
