BRUSSELS, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Russian activist Sergei Kovalev, co-winner of the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought, urged Europe to speak up on Russian human rights violations.
The 79-year-old former Soviet prisoner called on the European Union to keep the pressure on Moscow, EUobserver reported.
Kovalev was in Strasbourg, France with two of his colleagues from the Russian human rights group Memorial, Oleg Orlov and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, to share in the Sakharov prize, named after Soviet-era physicist-turned-dissident Andrei Sakharov.
"It is becoming more and more rare for Europe to make recommendations to Russia in the field of human rights protection and democracy," he said Wednesday.
"The duty of Europe is not to keep silent, but remind Russia, call attention to it, insist respectfully but firmly that Russia fulfill its obligations."
