Debate: Award of the Sakharov Prize
Date: WEDNESDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2021
Speaker: Daria Navalnaya
Language: EN

Mr President, before I start my speech, I want to tell everyone how incredibly grateful I am to be here accepting this award for my father and, at the same time, absolutely terrified. This is a big honour for me to be able to stand here in front of all of you and, as a 20-year-old college student who doesn’t know much about politics, I’m very much afraid and anxious about messing this up!  When I first heard that my dad, Aleksei Navalny, was being given the Sakharov Prize, I was extremely happy for two reasons. The first one: this is a tremendous honour, recognition of his merits, and high praise of the work that has been done and is continuing to be done by him and his co-workers. And most importantly, it’s a signal to those tens of millions of citizens in my country who are continuing to fight for the better fate for Russia. I will also name the second reason, although it is a little frank and awkward. My father is receiving this award from the European Parliament and when you receive such an award, you get to come and speak in front of the European Parliament. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, he wasn’t able to be here today, and I thought to myself: well, I guess someone better run and get that ticket to Strasbourg and seize the opportunity to come and see this wonderful thing for myself.  And over some time, I realised that this might actually be what the nightmare of myself and my family looks like. Me travelling to different conferences and summits, giving speeches in my dad’s name. Sometimes he’s even awarded something but I’m the one travelling, I’m the one writing the speech, and starting it with a joke, while he’s in jail. And I will continue travelling, meanwhile reading articles about the horrible conditions my dad is being held in. It’s not like there’s much to do about it, so I travel and speak, and he continues to be held in confinement.  And this doesn’t only concern Aleksei Navalny. Where are last year’s laureates – the Belarusian opposition – now? Mostly in prison. Where is the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lui Xiaobo? He died in prison. And here, I ask myself today: why is it so hard to free from captivity those who are fighting for human rights? Why are they still thrown in jail, not only all over the world, but in European – geographically European – countries in the 21st century?  Europe is great and almighty. The will of the European citizens is expressed by the resolutions of the Members of the European Parliament, and those are precise, correct and fair resolutions. They are supported by the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the whole free world. But those who are like my father continue sitting in prison watching more and more of their allies being thrown behind bars.  You know, I’ve heard this many times and am sure I will again, maybe even in the corridors after this ceremony. ‘You know, Dasha,’ they will say to me, ‘I understand why you’re feeling this way because it concerns your family and close ones. But in the real world, however, we have to be more pragmatic.’ And, in those hallways, I’ll nod my head and say, ‘Yes, of course.’ What else can I say? I’m a 20-year-old college student and I don’t feel very comfortable arguing with experienced and responsible pragmatics.  However, here today, taking advantage of the fact that I have the microphone – no one will take it away from me, and I don’t have to argue with anyone personally, feeling impolite – I would like to oppose that pragmatism.  This is the Sakharov Prize and Andrei Sakharov was probably one of the most non-pragmatic people on the planet. I don’t understand why those who advocate for pragmatic relations with dictators can’t simply open the history books. It would be a very pragmatic act and having done it, it’s very easy to understand the inescapable political law: the pacification of dictators and tyrants never works.  No matter how many people try to deceive themselves, hoping that another madman who clings to power will behave decently in response to concessions and flirtations, it will never happen. The very essence of authoritarian power involves a constant increase in bets, an increase in aggression, and the search for new enemies. And those who once said ‘Let’s not push Lukashenko and continue the dialogue’ when he was beating people up and throwing them behind bars, achieved only that now, in order to sentence someone, Lukashenko has to stop a whole passenger plane.  Another thing that pragmatists don’t want to do for some reason, which urges them to remember about the expenses and economic losses, is simply to pick up a calculator and see how much their pragmatism costs, in particular to the European taxpayers.  Years of flirting with Putin made it clear to him that to increase his ratings, he can start a war. How much will the war with Ukraine cost Europe? Even now, with so much news on Russian troops coming to the Ukrainian border, no one’s really talking about it. No pragmatic trade cooperation will recoup the share of the direct loss that will have to be incurred. Not to mention the cost of the time that Western politicians like yourselves have already spent on solving the problem instead of dealing with their own affairs in their own countries.  One of the opposition leaders, Boris Nemtsov, is killed with shots in the back, right by the Kremlin. And then comes the pragmatist who says: ‘well, we can’t do much about it. Let’s limit ourselves to a tough statement and then continue the conversation.’ And then they’ll kill the second and the third, and the fourth will be killed in the centre of Berlin, and the fifth in the UK. And then they also blow up some warehouses in Europe, and then they start killing with chemical weapons. And what we know is just about unsuccessful assassination attempts. How many were successful?  We already know that a real terrorist group has been created inside Putin’s special services, killing citizens of my country without a hearing or trial. Without justice. They were close to killing my mother. They nearly killed my father, and no one will guarantee that tomorrow European politicians won’t start falling dead by simply touching a doorknob.  And now, you’re already increasing the police budget, you give a lot of money to special services, spend billions on new ways to detect those toxic substances, and these are the consequences of pragmatism. ‘Don’t push it, we need to act carefully and not anger them’, says the pragmatist. And tomorrow, dictators inspired by half measures of the West will transport thousands of people to the border of the European Union, forcing women and children to storm the fences, and secretly dreaming of someone being shot or trampled in the crowd.  Let pragmatists answer how much will it cost Poland or Lithuania or the entire European Union?  They will answer me: ‘What do you want? These are sovereign states, they have their own governments. Our capabilities are very limited. Are you proposing a nuclear war to free the political prisoners?’  Of course, I don’t propose starting a war. However, I will note that although it’s not successful, it has started and there are real victims, and they’re using both cyber and chemical weapons.  The fact that European banks freely launder corrupted billions of Putin and his friends, that the yachts of Putin’s oligarchs continue being sensations on the European Mediterranean, that 99% of top officials of Russia and Belarus directly involved in crimes are all still freely allowed to travel in Europe, just like their families, are all sure signs that many of those who make decisions don’t even try to win at least the small wars in this battle. They talk too much and think about the realm of politics, considering actions based on ideas and principles which, frankly, are naive and stupid.  And you know what. It seems to me that the problem is that the desire to appeal to the dictators again and again, not to anger him, to ignore his crimes as long as it’s possible, is not a pragmatic approach at all. It’s time to say it straight. Under the sign of pragmatism there is cynicism, hypocrisy and corruption. There is a constant war between idealism and pragmatism. There are fierce battles in European politics. But even choosing the side of pragmatism shouldn’t mean betraying your ideas.  When I wrote to my dad and asked: what exactly do you want me to say in the speech from your point, he answered: say that no one can dare to equate Russia to Putin’s regime. Russia is a part of Europe, and we strive to become a part of it. But we also want Europe to strive for itself. To those amazing principles, which are at its core. We strive for a Europe of ideas. The celebration of human rights, democracy and integrity. And we don’t want Europe of chancellors and ministers who dream of getting a job on the board of Putin’s state-owned companies or sailing on oligarchs’ yachts.  Today, on this stage, receiving this high amazing award for my father, Aleksei Navalny, I thank you and through all of you I welcome the Europe of ideas and principles. The European Union is an incredible miracle created by nations whose whole history is an endless war with each other. Despite all the difficulties and problems, however, the EU has encountered and will encounter, I believe that in its future one day my country will become a part of it.  To finish this speech, I want to quote a great compatriot of mine, in whose honour this award was named: ‘My destiny was in some sense exceptional. Not because of false modesty but because of a wish to be accurate I note that my destiny has turned out to be larger than my personality. I’ve simply tried to live up to my own destiny.’  I hope we all have the strength to live up to our destinies. Freedom for Aleksei Navalny!