MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia's oldest human rights organization, is to be honored by Germany, the German embassy in Moscow said on Tuesday.
"German President Horst Koehler has conferred the Commander's Cross for services to the Federal Republic of Germany on Lyudmila Alekseyeva," the embassy said in a press release.
The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday. Alekseyeva will receive the prize from German Ambassador to Russia Walter Jurgen Schmid.
Alekseyeva will be honored for "her long fight for democratic values and human rights" as well as for her efforts to strengthen bilateral ties.
The Russian laureate has spent 15 years in immigration, and is the author of over a hundred papers on human rights. She also holds a number of other international awards, including the Olof Palme prize, France's National Order of the Legion of Honor and the Andrei Sakharov prize for the Freedom of Thought.
Other Russians to have received the German prize over the past two years are Catholic priest Richard Stark, businessman Stefan Durr and first deputy Moscow mayor Yury Roslyak.
