Russian activist Konstantin Kotov awarded ‘Boris Nemtsov Prize’

Russian activist Konstantin Kotov has been awarded the Boris Nemtsov Foundation’s 2020 “Prize for Courage,” the organization’s website announced.

Kotov was honored “for courage in upholding democratic values,” the head of the foundation’s board, Vladimir Kara-Murza, wrote on Twitter.

In 2019, Konstantin Kotov became a high-profile figure in the so-called Moscow Case, a controversial set of trials involving a number of activists who participated in protests that summer. Kotov was sentenced to four years in prison for repeated violations of Russia’s protest law. In April 2020, the Moscow City Court reduced Kotov’s sentence to 1.5 years in prison.