VIDEO | Ukraine, Muratov: “The Pope plus Messi equals ceasefire”
The proposal comes from Dmitrij Muratov, Russian journalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021
ROME – Praying together with the Pope for the ceasefire in Ukraine; perhaps with the help of another very popular Argentinian, Lionel Messi, to involve all those who “want to save the planet”: this is the proposal of Dmitrij Muratov, Russian journalist Nobel Prize for peace in 2021.
With the Dire agency the former director of the Novaja Gazeta newspaper speaks in a small room on the first floor of the Palazzo della Cancelleria, on the sidelines of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, two days of global debates and working groups in Rome and the Vatican.
After a meeting with the Pope, part of a program involving 30 Nobel Prize winners, Muratov will return to Moscow, where he continues to live with his family despite being declared a “foreign agent” in 2023for alleged links with foreign financiers. His appeal for the victims of the war in Ukraine, however, has no boundaries.
“Enough blood” says Muratov in the interview. “We must reach a ceasefire immediately.” The journalist’s thesis is that Pope Francis could have an important role. “Three billion people love and know him” underlines Muratov: “We should all pray together with him so that we stop killing each other and decide instead to save this planet”.< br>At the opening of the World Meeting, sitting to the left of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, the journalist asked the Pope to also invite Messi, the reigning world champion football star, Argentinian like Francis, to make a contribution to peace .
“All those who love the planet and who want to save it should join in this prayer” reiterates Muratov. “It’s good then that Messi participates and then we need to support all the proposals for the ceasefire: such as that of the French president Emmanuel Macron for an Olympic truce, an idea that has already received the support of the Chinese head of state Xi Jinping“.
But how could the war end? “That’s not the point now,” Muratov replies. “We need to cease fire: we will think about the negotiations and conditions later“.
In 2021 the reporter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work “to protect freedom of expression”, understood as “a precondition for lasting democracy and peace”. In the editorial staff of Novaya Gazeta, Muratov was colleague of Anna Politkovskaja, a journalist critical of power who was assassinated in Moscow in 2006.