The TIME magazine has published its list of 100 most influential people of 2022. Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, made the list.
Photo: TIME
TIME included Muratov into the “Icons” section. “In Russia, independent journalism is a blood sport. Some heroes show moments of bravery; Dmitry Muratov has shown a lifetime of bravery,” reads Muratov’s profile text, written by Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund, and author of the book called Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder and Surviving Vladimir Putins Wrath.
Browder notes that six Novaya Gazeta reporters have been assassinated for exposing the crimes of Vladimir Putin’s regime and Russia’s oligarchy since 1993, the year the newspaper was established. Browder also reminds the TIME readers that Sergey Sokolov, Muratov’s deputy, was taken to a forest by the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, or Russia’s FBI in 2012; the official threatened to kill him and then pretend to investigate his death.
“But nothing has intimidated Muratov and the Novaya Gazeta team. Year in and year out, his newspaper has exposed billions of dollars of the Putin government’s corruption, extrajudicial killings, and rampant human-rights abuses,” Browder wrote.
Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa of the Philippines-based Rappler were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace". Months later, following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Muratov pledged to donate his medal to benefit refugees fleeing the crisis.
