From NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, a large number of nominations for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize until January 31 are related to the war in Ukraine, but are not necessarily favorites, comments France Presse.

Among the people and organizations proposed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the few names released usually relate to participants in the almost year-old conflict in Ukraine or opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the Nobel statute, the list of candidates is kept secret for at least 50 years. But thousands of people who make proposals (parliamentarians or ministers from all countries, former laureates, individual university professors…) can freely disclose the identity of their “protégé”.

The award for 2023 will be announced in early October. Several hundred names are proposed every year – 343 in 2022.

A Norwegian right-wing populist parliamentarian has hinted that he will nominate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has become a symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022.

The same deputy also proposed his compatriot Jens Stoltenberg, who, in his opinion, “deserves an award for his exemplary work as NATO Secretary General in a difficult period for the alliance: a brutal and unprovoked attack on a peaceful neighboring country.”

Also participating is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, nominated by the President of the Pakistani Senate for his peace efforts “before and during the Russian-Ukrainian war.”

Russian opposition leader Oleksiy Navalny, an anti-corruption activist who is in custody after a poisoning attempt, and journalist Volodymyr Kara-Murza, who is in prison after two poisonings, were also suggested.

Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a trio consisting of the Russian non-governmental organization “Memorial”, the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties and the imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatskyi.

In 2021, another critic of the Kremlin, journalist Dmytro Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, as well as his Filipino colleague Maria Ressa, both representatives of press freedom in their countries, were awarded.

“It is difficult for the committee to analyze the past year because the conflict in Ukraine was so important and dominant … but it is also necessary to pay attention to other international problems elsewhere in the world,” said the director of the Institute for Peace Studies in Oslo (Prio), Henrik Urdahl.

In recent years, among the possible scenarios, awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to environmentalists has constantly returned, AFP adds.

(Source: Agerpres / Photo: Dreamstime.com)