The Norwegian commission on Friday denied it planned to give a “poisoned gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin on his birthday by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to human rights defenders in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
The prize was awarded to Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, who is currently in prison, the Russian organization Memorial, which has been disbanded in Moscow, and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, which is working to document “Russian war crimes” in Ukraine.
Putin, who invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year, is celebrating his 70th birthday today.
“This award is not addressed to Vladimir Putin on his birthday or in any other sense, except that his government, like the Belarusian government, is an authoritarian government that oppresses human rights activists.”said the chairman of the committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen.
Reiss-Andersen had previously announced the award of the prize to “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence in the three neighboring countries of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine”.
With this decision, the committee did not ignore the war in Ukraine, which plunged Europe into the worst security crisis since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The five committee members said this year’s laureates have “revived and honored Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and brotherhood among nations,” which they even deemed “most necessary in today’s world.”
Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) left his fortune to create a prize named after him in various fields.
With regard to peace, according to the Norwegian commission, Nobel determined that work should be distinguished “for the brotherhood of nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.
Since 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 102 times to 91 men, 18 women and 25 organizations, for a total of 134 laureates.
The list includes current East Timorese President José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Ximenes Belo, who were honored in 1996 for “their work for a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor”.
This is the second year in a row that Putin has seen one of his critics receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2021, journalist Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has since been suspended, was awarded an award along with fellow Filipino journalist Maria Ressa for defending freedom of the press and expression.
Of Friday’s guests of honor, the Center for Civil Liberties was quoted as saying for its “efforts to identify and document Russian war crimes against the Ukrainian civilian population.”
Memorial – founded in 1989 by another Nobel Peace Prize winner, Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov (1975) – is considered a key player in the defense of rights in Russia, according to the French agency AFP.
As for Ales Bialiatsky, the Nobel Committee identified one of the symbols of opposition to the regime of an ally of Putin in the Ukrainian war, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Source: DN
