The Sixth Annual Ion Ratiu Democracy Award

Oleg Kozlovsky, a political activist and co-founder of Solidarnost, United Democratic Movement in Russia, will receive the 2010 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award on Thursday, 2 December at the Woodrow Wilson Center, as part of a two-panel workshop featuring a round-table discussion After the "Reset:" U.S. and European Approaches to Russia and a keynote address Democracy: New Tools for the Struggle.

2010 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award Workshop Agenda

Panel I: After the "Reset:" US and European Approaches to Russia
2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Joining the round-table discussion will be Michael McFaul, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, Ivan Vejvoda, vice president, Programs, German Marshall Fund, Ambassador Kurt Volker, managing director and senior fellow, Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS, and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, and Angela Stent, director,Center for Eurasian, Russian & East European Studies, Georgetown University. Comments will be provided by Oleg Kozlovsky, a political activist and co-founder of Solidarnost, United Democratic Movement in Russia.

Panel II: Democracy: New Tools for the Struggle
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Oleg Kozlovsky, recipient of the 6th Annual Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, will deliver this year's keynote address, Democracy: New Tools for the Struggle. The panel will also feature Daniel B. Baer, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Department of State, Robert Guerra, project director, Internet Freedom, Freedom House, and Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Egyptian democracy activist and 2006 Recipient of the Ion Ratiu Lecture Award.

Read Oleg Kozlovsky's "Democracy: New Tools for the Struggle" keynote speech

Starting with 2010, The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award offers a month-long scholarship at the Wilson Center that allows the awardee to take advantage of the Woodrow Wilson Center's and Washington's unique resources. Awardees will have an opportunity to immerse themselves in the scholarly, policymaking, and NGO communities in Washington, D.C. The 2010 Awardee will present the results of this experience at a workshop at the Woodrow Wilson Center, to be held on 2 December.

The purpose of the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award is to bring visibility and international recognition to the ideas and accomplishments of individuals around the world who are working on behalf of democracy. The event expresses the deep commitment to democracy of the late Ion Ratiu through his contributions as a Romanian politician as well as his interest in democratic change worldwide.

The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award aims to replicate for campaigning democrats today, whether in exile from repressive regimes or representative of today's emerging democracies, the life-changing experience in Washington DC of the Romanian democrat, Ion Ratiu, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Past awardees include Sergio Aguayo (Mexico, 2005), Saad El-Din Ibrahim (Egypt, 2006), Anatoli Mikhailov (Belarus, 2007), Eleonora Cercavschi (Moldova, 2008), and Adam Michnik (Poland, 2009).

The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award is funded by the Ratiu Foundation.
The Ratiu Foundation is a charitable organisation established in 1979 by the leading Romanian dissident and democracy campaigner, Ion Ratiu, and his wife Elisabeth Ratiu. The goals of the Foundation are to further education and research in the culture and history of Romania in particular, and also to stimulate and support civil society in its understanding and application of democracy and democratic principles the world over. Details on www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com