Russian Politicians, Experts, Rights Activists Puzzled By EU’s Nobel Prize

October 15, 2012 JRL Russia List Europe, EU

(RIA Novosti – October 12, 2012) Russian politicians, experts and human rights activists have shown rare unity in their opinion of the Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. Some of them believe that the award was intended to show political support to the organization, which is going through difficult times, others think it was a mistake or a strange gesture which is devaluing the award.

Politicians

Head of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Aleksey Pushkov said that the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union was intended to show political support at a time when the organization was going through one of the most difficult periods in its history, according to a RIA Novosti report on 12 October.

However, given the rise of racist and xenophobic feelings in the EU, the award raises questions, Pushkov said.

According to first deputy chairman of the Duma International Affairs Committee and political analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov, this is “further devaluation of the Nobel Peace Prize”.

“The European Union is a bureaucratic superstructure of an economic nature. There are far more organizations that have really made ??a significant contribution to the strengthening of peace,” Nikonov said.

He also believes that the award is an attempt to support the organization in a difficult situation.

Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovskiy believes that the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union was “a mistake and provocation”.

Speaking on the radio Ekho Moskvy, he said: “This is monstrous that the European Union gets the award after it took part in the aggression of the coalition of 33 countries against Iraq in the 90s,” Zhirinovskiy said.

He said that the participation of the EU in the military campaigns against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya and some Middle Eastern countries was also contrary to the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Zhirinovskiy wrote in his Twitter account on the same day: “Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to EU is a mistake! They helped all Orange Revolutions in the Arab world, and now they approve the destruction of Syria.”

The LDPR faction’s coordinator Yaroslav Nilov believes that the European Union does not set an example of peace. On the contrary, it is full of serious internal conflicts, so the award aims to provide indirect support for the EU.

Head of the Moscow branch of A Just Russia deputy Aleksandr Ageyev agrees that the prize was awarded to support the European Union, which faces a number of internal problems.

According to the deputy, decisions to award the Nobel Peace Prize are not transparent and people don’t understand them.

“In recent years, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be explained by clear, understandable logic. There have been many strange decisions,” Ageyev said.

First deputy chairman of the Duma International Committee from the Communist Party Leonid Kalashnikov also admitted that the mechanism of decision-making by the Nobel Committee was a mystery for him.

“The Nobel Committee’s decision is a great mystery to me. I cannot understand it because, in my opinion, there were more worthy candidates,” he told RIA Novosti.

“This is an unexpected and unorthodox decision, to put it mildly,” deputy speaker of the PACE and chairman of the Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Leonid Slutskiy told Interfax news agency.

He described the Nobel Committee’s decision as “strange”. Slutskiy added that “peacekeeping is, at best, a secondary aspect of the European Union’s work”.

“Therefore, the gesture is certainly a complement, and maybe a political decision. Probably someone in the Nobel Committee decided to make a nice gesture towards Brussels,” Slutskiy said.

Human rights activists

Russian human rights activists have also been puzzled by the award. According to them, first, the prize should be given to distinguished people, and second, there is not a lot of peace inside the EU itself.

Head of the Memorial Human Rights Centre Svetlana Gannushkina described the Nobel Committee’s as strange. Speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio, she said: “I find this decision very strange, to give the award to a large bureaucratic state structure.”

Russia’s oldest human rights activist and head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseyeva did not approve of the decision either.

“If it had been given to political prisoners of Iran, I would have understood it better,” Alekseyeva told Interfax.

Alekseyeva and Gannushkina were among the nominees for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

“Don’t think that these are the words of an offended person. This is a comment from a common-sense person,” she said.

Despite her good attitude to the European Union, she said the decision was a sign of he degeneration of the idea that underpins the Nobel Prize.

“I support the EU, but the prize should be awarded not to organizations but to people who often risk their lives in the real fight for real peace,” leader of the For Human Rights movement Lev Ponomarev told RIA Novosti.

“This is wrong, this decision is too politicized,” he said.

Director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights Aleksandr Brod was also surprised.

“Sometimes their decisions are very strange. I think that the award should be personified,” he told RIA Novosti.

Head of the Presidential Council on Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov described the decision as controversial.

“I would call it a strange decision,” Fedotov told Interfax.

“It is not clear who gets the prize. If this is a question of contribution to the protection of human rights, then this award should have rather been given to the European Court of Human Rights,” Fedotov said.

Public figures

“I am perplexed. I think the idea of the Nobel Prize has been a little discredited… As a citizen, I feel surprised, bewildered and a bit disappointed,” deputy secretary of the Public Chamber Vladislav Grib said.

According to Public Chamber member Iosif Diskin, the award shows that the Nobel Committee is more interested in words than deeds.

“The European Union has shown that it does not work well, and that it generates sharp social tensions and protests. This organization is guided by good intentions, but it has shown its deep inefficiency,” he told RIA Novosti.

Diskin said that the award was given in a situation where the EU’s actions had lead to the most difficult challenges for many countries, including Greece, Spain and Italy.

Co-chairman of the Republican Party of Russia – Parnas Boris Nemtsov said that the Nobel Peace Prize had been intended to support the unity of the European states in a difficult time.

Speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio, he said: “I think this is a consolation prize, which was given to the European Union to prevent it from falling apart,” Nemtsov said.

From his point of view, this step is “right and honourable” but he still thought it was “strange” that the award had been given to an organization numbering tens of millions of people. “I do not really understand who in particular was given the award,” Nemtsov said.

Experts

Director-general of the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs Andrey Kortunov believes that, unfortunately, the EU has not yet become a major international player.

“It is possible that the prize was given as an advance to the European Union, a reflection of hopes that the EU will play a more active role, also in Europe, where there are still conflicts, and beyond. But I am quite sure that this decision will raise many questions. There will be people who will criticize this decision, but such decisions are always subjective,” Kortunov said.

Head of the European Integration Studies Department at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Olga Potemkina has said that the award might be considered as a sign of support for EU leaders, going through hard times.

“The leaders of the EU and EU member states are heroically fighting to preserve the fruit of many years of their work. And in this respect the award can be a sign of support,” Potemkin said.

The prize can also be regarded as a reward for past services, since “the creation of the European Union was aimed at strengthening stability on the continent”.

A dissenting voice

The Nobel Committee made the right decision to awarding the Peace Prize to the European Union, head of the Chair of European Integration at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Nikolay Koveshnikov told radio Ekho Moskvy.

“The main point of European integration was to reconcile former enemies after the Second World War, and in broader terms, create conditions in which a war in Europe would be impossible, unprofitable and useless. This was achieved,” he said.
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Russian Politicians, Experts, Rights Activists Puzzled By EU’s Nobel Prize
RIA Novosti
October 12, 2012

Russian politicians, experts and human rights activists have shown rare unity in their opinion of the Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. Some of them believe that the award was intended to show political support to the organization, which is going through difficult times, others think it was a mistake or a strange gesture which is devaluing the award.