It is the 20th anniversary of Nobel peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov’s death. The presentation of the EU’s Sakharov prize to Russian human rights group Memorial is imminent, and a small group has commemorated Sakharov’s achievements in front of his Moscow home.

“In a certain manner he is now for certain regimes like a nail through the sole of a boot, and that is good. Our fault is that we don’t make our authorities feel this nail permanently,” said one man.

A press conference held at the same time highlighted Memorial’s ongoing work on human rights abuses in Chechnya. Some 3000 people have “disappeared” there since the last war with Russia. One of the prize’s recipients, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, was kidnapped and killed in Chechnya earlier this year.

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