Representative Leonid Volkov received an award in the name of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at this year's M100 Media Prize ceremony in Potsdam on Wednesday, which was also attended by German FDP party leader Christian Lindner.

The prize for Navalny, who has been in custody since January, was handed over to his closest colleague and confidant Leonid Volkov. The Federal Chairman of the FDP, Christian Lindner, who has been campaigning for the release of Navalny for months, gave a speech in his honour.

Alexei Navalny was the leader of a Russian opposition and founder of the anti-corruption foundation FBK. He became known for his anti-corruption investigations against state-owned companies and high-ranking government officials.

Volkov by profession an IT project manager, had earned a doctorate in computer science from Ural State University in his hometown of Yekaterinburg. He was a member of the Ekaterinburg City Council from 2009 to 2013 and in 2015 founded the Internet Protection Society, a non-governmental organisation that promotes internet freedom and digital rights in Russia.

The M100 Media Award has been presented annually since 2005 as part of the international media conference M100 Sanssouci Colloquium to personalities who stand up for democracy, European understanding and freedom of opinion and the press. Previous winners have been Bob Geldof, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, Vitali Klitschko, Erdem Gunduz "The Standing Man", the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the Italian writer Roberto Saviano, the journalist Deniz Yucel, the Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Dull.