MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. The Nobel Peace Prize ceased to be "of any significance" and has been completely discredited, Valery Fadeyev, head of the Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights told TASS on Friday.
The official hit out at the decision to award the 2022 prize to Belarusian lawyer and whistleblower Ales Belyatsky, Russia’s Memorial (designated as a foreign agent) and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties.
"The Nobel Peace Prize has ceased to be, firstly, a prize of any significance, and secondly, it has ceased to be a peace prize, and it has been completely discredited by today's decision. I want to note that in the past decades this prize was awarded to quite serious people. Its laureates were Mother Teresa, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Willy Brandt. Now it’s this Ukrainian supposedly human rights organization," Fadeyev contended.
He said Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties is collecting data about the alleged crimes of the Russian army. "Where was this organization during the previous eight years, when Donbass was bombed, when thousands of civilians, children, and the elderly were killed," Fadeyev pointed out.
He said the organization collected information about "some victims of the Maidan."
"What victims of the Maidan? It was a coup instigated and supported by the West. It's not about the idea of defending human rights, it's an ideology of war," Fadeyev clarified.
Fadeyev also criticized bestowing the prize to the Belarusian activist, saying that people like that alleged human rights advocate were on a mission to topple Belarusian statehood.
"Anyone can have all sorts of complaints about the government, but then the goal was to destroy the Belarusian statehood. When a country is in ruins, there can’t be any talk about rights and freedoms," Fadeyev insisted.
He also expressed regret that Russia’s Memorial found itself in the same company.
"I would like to advise Russia’s Memorial to reject the prize in order to leave at least a morsel of fond memories about itself," Fadeyev said.
The Nobel Committee said in its decision that the laureates "represent civil society in their home countries." They "promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens," the committee said.