countries. they have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. they have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, an outstanding effort to document warcrimes, human an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power. together, they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy. this year s peace prize is awarded to human rights advocate from belarus. the russian human rights organisation and the ukrainian human rights organisation centre for civil liberties. ales bialiatski was one of the initiators of the democracy movement which emerged in belarus in the 19805. which emerged in belarus in the 1980s. he has devoted his life to promoting democracy and peace will development in his home country. he founded the organisation meaning spring in 1996 in response to the controversial constitutional amendments that gave the president dictatorial, there s
russia today. it is the oldest human rights organisation in russia, and it no longer legally exists in that country. so i think this is a signal from the nobel prize committee of their support for those fundamental principles that organisations like memorial and viasna, represented by ales bialiatski, represent. the committee ales bialiatski, represent. the committee is ales bialiatski, represent. the committee is clearly calling on belarus to free ales bialiatski? yes, there are so many political prisoners in belarus today, i think it is well over 800 at the last count, very prominent figures like him, others who were involved in protests in 2020, maria kolesnikova, of course, very prominent figures who are behind bars, and the same goes for russia, where all of the most prominent critics of vladimir putin are either in or in prison. just yesterday we heard that vladimir caro but is now facing a charge of treason, he was arrested at the beginning of this war because of his critici