• Russia’s Nobel Peace Prize co-winner says the Kremlin told him to decline.
• Yan Rachinsky said the other winners were “unacceptable.”
• Oleksandra Matviichuk declined an interview.

The co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Russia claims that the Kremlin told him to decline the honor.

Memorial’s director, Yan Rachinsky, said that he was instructed not to receive the award because the two other co-winners—a Ukrainian human rights organization and a jailed Belarusian rights advocate—were thought to be “inappropriate.”

One of the first civil rights organizations in Russia, Memorial, was shut down by the authorities last year.

A comment from the Russian Foreign Ministry has been requested.

In an exclusive interview with the Media, Mr Rachinsky said his organization had been advised to decline the award, but “naturally, we took no notice of this advice”.

Despite threats to his safety, Mr Rachinsky said the work of Memorial remained essential.

“In today’s Russia, no-one’s personal safety can be guaranteed,” he said. “Yes, many have been killed. But we know what impunity of the state leads to… We need to get out of this pit somehow.”

Memorial had been documenting historical Soviet repression.

Its first chairman – Arseny Roginsky – was sent to Soviet labor camps for the so-called “anti-communist” study of history.

Announcing the prize winners, the Nobel Committee said that Memorial was founded on the idea that “confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones”.

The awarding of the prize to recipients in three distinct nations was deemed “exceptional” by Mr. Rachinsky.

Mr. Rachinsky called the committee’s decision to award the prize to recipients in three different countries “remarkable”.

He said it was proof “that civil society is not divided by national borders, that it is a single body working to solve common problems”.

But it has drawn criticism for choosing a Russian beneficiary.

Another prizewinner and director of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties declined to be interviewed with Mr. Rachinsky. In Oslo, the media spoke to each of them independently.

When asked why she wanted to do the interview separately, Oleksandra Matviichuk told Media: “Now we are in a war and we want to make the voice of Ukrainian human rights defenders tangible.

“So I am sure that regardless that we are doing separate interviews, we transmit and deliver the same messages.”

The Center for Civil Liberties was honored for its work advancing democracy in Ukraine and looking into purported war crimes committed by Russia there.

Even though Ms. Matviichuk declined to speak next to her fellow winner, she commended Mr. Rachinsky’s work and referred to Memorial as “our partner.”

Memorial had helped the Ukrainian group for years, she said, adding she had “huge respect for all [her] Russian human rights colleagues” who work in difficult conditions.

She also cautioned that Eastern Europe would not experience peace if Russian crimes were not adequately investigated and prosecuted.

President Vladimir Putin and other Russians should answer for their activities in Ukraine, Ms. Matviichuk demanded, and she criticized the current system as being insufficient.

“The question is, who will provide justice for hundreds of thousands of victims of the war crimes?” she asked.

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