Last night I attended the Human Rights First 30th annual award dinner in New York City, where I had the opportunity to meet with the admirable Russian civil society leader Oleg Kozlovsky – a brave young man who is well known to my regular readers. As previously reported here, Kozlovsky was in town to receive an award from this organization along with the Egyptian blogger Nora Younis, presented by the well known actor Sigourney Weaver. Other notable attendees included Ted Kennedy, Mary Robinson, and Lyudmila Alexeyeva. Oleg blogs about his experience at the awards ceremony here, and an interview from the day before was also published here. My editor James caught up with Oleg in New York today for a quick Q&A, which you’ll find posted below. It’s always a pleasure and honor to meet with one of Russia’s brave young democratic activists, and I wish him the best of luck and success in his important work. – Robert Amsterdam Q: Tell me about the ceremony last night … what was it like to be thrust into the limelight alongside so many notable figures to receive this award? Oleg Kozlovsky: Well, I certainly don’t feel like a celebrity, or that this is what the event was really about. I don’t believe that this organization was necessarily recognizing my humble work, but rather the award is in recognition of the work of many other people – the real, true democratic heroes of Russia. In this case I’m seen as their representative, and I accepted the award on behalf on all of them.