The Nobel Peace Prize was announced this Friday in Oslo, Norway. There are several names on the list of possible candidates who have distinguished themselves either for political, environmental, or against the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them are the names of Greta Thunberg, Alexei Navalny or the international non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders.
This year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee received 329 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, of which 234 are individuals and 95 organizations. This is the third highest number of candidates in history (376) achieved in 2016. The committee has an immutable rule: the name of the nominees and the name of the person who applied are kept in the safe for 50 years. …
Nevertheless, Reuters interviewed several Norwegian MPs and found out that the candidates include climate activist Greta Thunberg and political dissidents Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Alexei Navalny.
The discussion of the issue of awarding the prize is also kept secret, since there are not even protocols dedicated to the consideration of committee members.
But who are the possible candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize?
In a year marked by the impact of climate change, which has caused countless extreme events such as fires and floods that have killed hundreds of people, young climate activist Greta Thunberg has become one of the best known names.
The Swede, named by TIME magazine as the Person of the Year 2019, may be one of the favorites. At just 18 years old, Greta managed to mobilize millions of young people in a wave of climate protests, who joined the school strike that swept the world. In addition, he spoke publicly about his concern for the environment and called on several world leaders to make a commitment.
At the level of political strife, there are two possible names in a race. One of them is Alexei Navalny, the main political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This Wednesday, he was the recipient of the German M100 Media Awards for freedom of expression and democracy. The activist could be recognized for his work in fighting corruption in Russia.
Navalny was hospitalized in August 2020 after poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent. After recovering from an attack in a German hospital, he returned to Russia in January of this year, where he was detained on charges of violating parole conditions. Since then, Navalny has been in a colony, where, according to him, he was subjected to “psychological violence.” However, Amnesty International recognized him as a “prisoner of conscience”.
In Belarus, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a politician and human rights activist, could have been a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight against the government of the “last dictator of Europe” Alexander Lukashenko. Tikhanovskaya highlighted the Belarusian political arena after her husband, opposition candidate Sergei Tikhanovskaya, was arrested last May. The activist took his seat and ran for the presidential elections in August. Lukashenko won the vote, prompting Svetlana to flee to Lithuania with her two children, where he lives in exile.
But, as the committee finds out, it wasn’t just individuals who were nominated. The World Health Organization (WHO) is one of the candidate organizations that was already nominated for last year’s award when the World Food Program was presented. The institution will be distinguished by its work during the covid-19 pandemic and, above all, by the organization’s fight for the fair distribution of vaccines against the new coronavirus in less affluent countries.
In addition, Time magazine highlights the names of organizations such as Reporters Without Borders that have fought for freedom of the press and against the dissemination of fake news, or the UN Human Rights Council.
Putin has repeatedly consulted with Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the invasion, Europa Press told Ukraine’s chief intelligence director Vadim Skibitsky.
According to Skibitsky, it was the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is responsible for counterintelligence and espionage work, that put pressure on Gerasimov and other military agencies to agree to launch an offensive. .
However, according to the Ukrainian intelligence services, the FSB considered that by the end of February sufficient preparations had already been made to guarantee the success of the Russian Armed Forces in a lightning invasion.
However, according to Kyiv, the Russian General Staff provided the Russian troops with supplies and ammunition for only three days, hoping that the offensive would be swift and immediately successful.
The head of Ukrainian intelligence also emphasized the cooperation of local residents, who always provided the Ukrainian authorities with up-to-date information about the Russian army, such as the number of soldiers or the exact location of troops.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
A Stockholm court on Monday sentenced a former Swedish intelligence officer to life in prison for spying for Russia, and his brother to at least 12 years in prison. In what is considered one of the most serious cases in Swedish counterintelligence history, much of the trial took place behind closed doors in the name of national security.
According to the prosecution, it was Russian military intelligence, the GRU, who took advantage of the information provided by the two brothers between 2011 and their arrest at the end of 2021.
Peyman Kia, 42, has held many senior positions in the Swedish security apparatus, including the army and his country’s intelligence services (Säpo). His younger brother, Payam, 35, is accused of “participating in the planning” of the plot and of “managing contacts with Russia and the GRU, including passing on information and receiving financial rewards.”
Both men deny the charges, and their lawyers have demanded an acquittal on charges of “aggravated espionage,” according to the Swedish news agency TT.
The trial coincides with another case of alleged Russian espionage, with the arrest of the Russian-born couple in late November in a suburb of Stockholm by a police team arriving at dawn in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Research website Bellingcat identified them as Sergei Skvortsov and Elena Kulkova. The couple allegedly acted as sleeper agents for Moscow, having moved to Sweden in the late 1990s.
According to Swedish press reports, the couple ran companies specializing in the import and export of electronic components and industrial technology.
The man was again detained at the end of November for “illegal intelligence activities.” His partner, suspected of being an accomplice, has been released but remains under investigation.
According to Swedish authorities, the arrests are not related to the trial of the Kia brothers.
“They can strengthen their positions. We understand that this can happen. At the same time, we do not rule out that they will announce a general mobilization,” Danilov said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.
Danilov believed that this mobilization would also be convened “to exterminate as many as possible” of Russian citizens, so that “they would no longer have any problems on their territory.”
In this sense, Danilov also reminded that Russia has not given up on securing control over Kyiv or the idea of the complete “destruction” of Ukraine. “We have to be ready for anything,” he said.
“I want everyone to understand that [os russos] they have not given up on the idea of destroying our nation. If they don’t have Kyiv in their hands, they won’t have anything in their hands, we must understand this,” continued Danilov, who also did not rule out that a new Russian offensive would come from “Belarus and other territories.” .
As such, Danilov praised the decision of many of its residents who chose to stay in the Ukrainian capital when the war broke out in order to defend the city.
“They expected that there would be panic, that people would run, that there would be nothing to protect Kyiv,” he added, referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
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