HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — A Canadian security forum on Saturday presented an award to Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who was freed from prison earlier this year in a massive prisoner exchange.
The Halifax International Security Forum presents the award annually in honor of U.S. Sen. John McCain, who died in 2018, to ''individuals from any country who have demonstrated uncommon leadership in the pursuit of human justice.''
The forum attracts military officials, United States senators, diplomats and scholars.
''I am humbled beyond words to be receiving this prize, but I view it first and foremost as your recognition of all my fellow Russian citizens who have the courage to stand up to Putin's regime and to call out his murderous war in Ukraine in full knowledge what the price of that will be,'' Kara-Murza said.
McCain was a regular at the forum and his son, Jack McCain, presented Kara-Murza with the award.
Kara-Murza was a pall bearer at McCain's funeral. ''It was described as his last dig at Vladimir Putin,'' Jack McCain said.
Kara-Murza was freed in the massive prisoner exchange earlier this year with the West — the largest since the Cold War. He had been imprisoned in Russia since April 2022 and was convicted of treason for denouncing the war in Ukraine.
He rose to prominence as a journalist and did columns as a contributor for The Washington Post from his prison cell. He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary earlier this year.
