Lech Walesa award goes to Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has become a laureate of the Lech Walesa Award, Chief of the Lech Walesa Institute, named after the former Polish president and leader of the Solidarity movement, declared at a news conference in Gdansk on Thursday. The award with a monetary value estimated at $100,000 will be turned over to Mikhail Khodorkovsky's son on September 29. The Lech Walesa award was instituted in 2008 in gratitude for the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Lech Walesa in 1983. The Lech Walesa award is awarded to prominent public figures, businessmen, organizations and public movements for advocating liberty, accord and cooperation between people and promoting the Solidarity values. Last year the Lech Walesa prize was awarded to the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Ales Belyatsky.