OSLO, October 11. (Itar-Tass). — Nobel Peace Prize 2013 has been awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). This was announced on Friday, October 11, by Head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland.

This year, there were 259 candidates for this award. October 1, ita was reported that the International Academy of Unity of Nations of the World has named Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Among other candidates were Denis Mukwege, a Kongolese gynecologist that saved lives of thousands of women that were raped and tortured during the civil war in the country; Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai that was shot in the head by Talibani militants when she was 14; ex-NSA employee Edward Snowden; U.S. soldier Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

What is Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize is one of five awards established by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel, the other being Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature. The Norwegian Nobel Committee is responsible for awarding the Peace Prize; its five members are elected by the Norwegian Parliament.

Laureates can include individuals and organizations. According to Nobel’s will, the prize shall be awarded to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

Nominators can be:

• Members of national assemblies and governments and members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
• Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice at the Hague
• Members of Institut de Droit International
• Former recipients, including board members of organizations that have previously won the prize
• Present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
• Former permanent advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Institute
• University professors of history, social sciences, philosophy, law and theology, university presidents and directors of peace research and international affairs institutes

 Nominations must be submitted by February 1 of the year the prize is awarded. 

Other Russian Nobel Peace Prize candidates include Andrey Sakharov (1975) and Mikhail Gorbachev (1990). Previously Sergei Komkov, the president of the  All-Russian Foundation for Education nominated Vladimir Putin for the Peace Prize. The letter noted that the Russian president “puts immense effort to maintain peace not only on the territory of his own country, but also facilitates peaceful resolution of all conflicts around the globe,” providing the Syrian crisis as an example, as well as prior conflicts in the Middle East and Mediterranean.