Kyiv Post Correspondent Nominated for Freedom in Ukraine Award

On Feb. 4, Ukraine’s Ayn Rand Center awarded the Best Freedom Advocate of 2022 Award to Natalia Melnyk, director of the Bendukidze Free Market Center, for promoting the values of economic freedom in Ukraine. The Center, which opened several years ago, promotes free market related economic reforms that can be implemented to improve citizens’ quality of life.

Also nominated for the award were entrepreneur Yana Matviychuk and Kyiv Post Special Correspondent Jason Jay Smart.

Smart commented that the war in Ukraine was “in its essence a fight for freedom; of light vs darkness; of those who want authoritarianism vs liberty.” In this context, Ukraine’s fight is “indeed the vanguard of freedom for everywhere, globally.”

The Ayn Rand Award for Advancing Liberty is an annual award launched by the NGO Ayn Rand Center in Ukraine in 2021. The purpose of the award is to recognize and unite Ukrainian organizations, public figures and those in the media whose work contributes to building a free society in Ukraine.

Daniil Lubkin, co-founder of the Ayn Rand Center – Ukraine, said: “We have created the Ayn Rand Award for Advancing Liberty to celebrate the enormous achievements of freedom fighters. We recognize the best media, think tanks, advocates, and businesses of the previous year. We build institutional capacity in the freedom movement.”

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Slavutych, once a city of nuclear scientists near the Belarusian border, has become a development center for many businesses, both Ukrainian and foreign.

Natalia Melnyk, Director of the Bendukidze Free Market Center (in the middle).