ST. PETERSBURG, December 22. /TASS/. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Tajik leader Emomali Rahmon and Uzbek head of state Shavkat Mirziyoyev received this year’s Leo Tolstoy Peace Prize for their joint contribution to strengthening peace and security. The award ceremony was held in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.

Valery Gergiev, general director of the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre, who heads the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize jury, presented the medal and diploma to the presidents. On September 9, the international jury announced that it had awarded the Peace Prize to the three presidents for their significant contributions to the signing of the Khujand Declaration on Eternal Friendship, which strengthened peace and security in Central Asia.

On March 31, the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan signed an agreement in the Tajik city of Khujand, where the three countries' borders converge, thus completing the legal formalization of their common borders and signing a trilateral declaration. The three countries had been unable to resolve this issue since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The prize was established in 2022 by the Russian Historical Society, the Peace Foundation, and the Russian Military Historical Society. It is awarded for significant contributions to preserving peace, outstanding achievements in countering the threat of a third world war and preventing nuclear catastrophe, active peacemaking, and defending human rights and freedoms. The first award was presented to the African Union in September 2024 at a ceremony held at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.