European Medal of Tolerance Ivo Josipovic and Ex-President of Serbia Boris Tadic at the European Parliament in Brussels by European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation Chairman Alexander Kwasniewski and ECTR Co-Chairman Viatcheslav Kantor, in recognition of the Balkan statesmens’ “significant contribution to promoting, seeking, safeguarding or maintaining tolerance on the European continent”. In 2015 Samuel Eto'o, a famous football-player, was awarded for his fight against racism in football. The European Medal of Tolerance for the 2016 was conferred on film director Andrey Konchalovsky "for his cultural achievements focused on preserving the tragic memory of the past including his film "Paradise". The European Medal of
Boris Birshtein high level ministers in Canada, including Charles McMillan, the former advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. McMillan helped the country device a market reform programme in the early 1990s. Canadian MP and former trade minister Monte Kwinter once said of Birshtein relationship with the former Kyrgyzstan president, Askar Akaev; “You talk about being at the foot of the president, well, those two were inseparable.” In 1993 Birshtein became the subject of unproven allegations that he had used Seabeco to loot millions of dollars from the former Soviet state treasury. The investigation was launched at the behest of Boris Yeltsin.