By Kristine Mae Casampol

People in positions of authority in Russia are actively promoting the concept of war, and a conflict with Ukraine is now a clear possibility, according to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov.

Muratov received his award at Oslo City Hall, saying that in Russia, politicians who avoided bloodshed were considered weak, whereas threatening the world with war was considered "the duty of true patriots."

Muratov, the editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, received the 2021 award with Maria Ressa of the Philippines, co-founder of the news site Rappler, for their fight for free expression.

"The powerful actively promote the idea of war," he said. "Moreover, in the heads of some crazy geopoliticians, a war between Russia and Ukraine is not something impossible any longer."

According to US officials, Russia may soon invade Ukraine as a result of a force buildup along the Ukrainian border. Moscow has denied that an invasion is in the planning.

Muratov also stated that Russian journalism was "through a dark valley", with over a hundred journalists, media outlets, human rights defenders, and non-governmental organizations labeled as "foreign agents."

"In Russia, this means "enemies of the people," Muratov added, dedicating his award to "the entire community of investigative journalists" and his Novaya Gazeta colleagues who died in the line of service.

They include Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in her Moscow apartment building 15 years ago after upsetting the Kremlin with dispatches from the Chechnya war.

Ressa Muratov, Muratov's co-laureate, reaffirmed her support for social media platform reform.

"Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that's coursing through our information ecosystem, prioritized by American internet companies that make more money by spreading that hate and triggering the worst in us."

"For the US, reform or revoke section 230, the law that treats social media platforms like utilities."

Ressa and Muratov are the first journalists to earn the Nobel Peace Prize since Germany's Carl von Ossietzky in 1935 for exposing his country's secret rearmament program.

Ressa mentioned in her address that Von Ossietzky was never allowed to accept his medal because he died in a Nazi concentration camp.

"By giving this to journalists today, the Nobel committee is signaling a similar historical moment, another existential point for democracy," she said.

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