MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called the Nobel Foundation's decision to uninvite ambassadors from Russia, Belarus and Iran from attending the awards ceremony in Stockholm cowardly and short-sighted.
Earlier, the Nobel Foundation took back invites for the ambassadors from Russia, Belarus and Iran to the awards ceremony in Stockholm. Meanwhile, the Foundation emphasized that the ambassadors of the three countries "will be invited to the ceremony in Oslo."
"This is cowardice - firstly, shortsightedness - secondly, inability to defend their principled, as they say, positions - thirdly, and, as always, the absence of any standards on matters of principle," the diplomat stated at the briefing.
Zakharova also recalled that one of the Nobel Prize's areas of focus is Peace as an "endeavor to prevent or overcome confrontation." "Unfortunately, the Nobel Foundation probably really tried to do something good, but as a result put into question its own impartiality, independence and integrity," she added.
About the Nobel Prize
Every year in early October, Nobel Week takes place in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. During the week, the winners of the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature, the Peace Prize and the State Bank of Sweden's Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics are announced. Nobel drafted a will in 1895, according to which the money from his estate should be divided each year into five equal parts and distributed in the form of prizes. These awards have been given since 1901. This year's Nobel Week will take place from October 2 to 9.
Russian and Soviet figures of science and culture won the prize on a number of occasions. Among them are scientists Ivan Pavlov, Lev Landau, Andrey Sakharov, writers Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Sholokhov, journalist Dmitry Muratov (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation).