Chairman of the Committee Against Torture Igor Kalyapin became a laureate of Egor Gaydar’s prize for 2018 in nomination “For activities contributing to forming of civil society”. For the first time two persons became winners in this nomination: apart from Igor Kalyapin, Igor Kochetkov, co-founder of “Russian LGBT-network” movement, became another laureate.

“Congratulations, colleagues! I think that this prize is for our efforts in achieving the most important and strategic goal – development of civil society in Russia. In my opinion, it’s great that our actions are regarded not only as struggle against office crime in law-enforcement structures, not only as standing for the citizens’ constitutional rights, but, most importantly, as creating the basis for sustainable existence of truly free and democratic society, which is able to effectively control any actions of the authorities. And great many thanks to these hundreds of people who are helping us to perform our work effectively”, – that’s how Igor Kalyapin commented the prize award.