The Nobel Foundation, in charge of awarding the Nobel prizes, retracted this Saturday the decision to invite “all ambassadors” to the award ceremony, after receiving “strong reactions” to the invitation to diplomats from Russia and Belarus.
“We have decided to repeat the exception to the usual practice of last year, that is, we will not invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm,” says a statement released this Saturday on its website.
Last year, this body decided not to invite the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus due to the war in Ukraine, as well as the Iranian ambassador due to the repression of the protest movement.
Contrary to what happened then, the foundation that organizes the awards ceremony and a large gala dinner in the Swedish capital announced on Friday that it would invite all the ambassadors of the countries present in Sweden to promote dialogue in favor of peace.
The decision to invite all ambassadors this year was criticized by the Swedish prime minister, kyiv and the Belarusian opposition.
“As long as millions of Ukrainians continue to suffer from a war they did not cause and the Russian power is not punished for its crimes, we call on the Nobel Committee to support efforts to isolate Russia and Belarus,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. from Ukraine, Oleg Nikolenko, through the social network Facebook.
For Nikolenko, this invitation will arouse “a growing feeling of impunity” on the part of the Russian power.
The Belarusian opposition leader in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovkaïa, has appealed to the Nobel Foundation to revoke the decision.
Belarus, ruled with an iron fist by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, is a close ally of Moscow.
“No compromise should be made regarding Alfred Nobel’s values. I ask the Foundation and the Nobel Committee not to invite representatives of the illegitimate Lukashenko regime to events and demand their immediate release” by Ales Bialiatski, Nobel Laureate for Peace 2022, highlighted Svetlana Tikhanovkaia through the social network X (ex-Twitter).
In Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was “very surprised” by the invitations.
The ceremony takes place every year in Stockholm on December 10, the day on which the winners of the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics receive their prizes from King Carl XVI Gustaf, followed by a gala dinner that brings together about 1,200 guests. .
On the same day, a separate event for the Nobel Peace Prize is organized in Oslo, to which all ambassadors present in Norway are invited, without exception.
Source: TSF
