Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, his spokesperson said on Thursday after a number of Russian writers led by Sergey Komkov revealed they had submitted his nomination to Oslo on September 10, according to the Tass news agency.
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However, Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Vladimir Putin was not nominated by the Kremlin.
“You all know that completely different people are nominated for this award, this is an initiative of those submitting the nomination,” he said.
“In this case, the nomination was submitted by the aforementioned writer,” he added, referring to Komkov. “If this decision is made to award Putin the prize, great if not, it’s no problem as well.”
This is not the first time Putin is being nominated for the award, in 2013, he was nominated for the prize by parliament member Iosif Kobzon, who was known as the “Russian Frank Siantra” — and the International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples for “participation in resolving the Syrian conflict and trying to stop the US military invasion of Syria,” Newsweek reported.
Just last week, Putin critic Alexei Navalny was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a group of Russian university professors, according to the mag, citing Sergei Erofeev, a Russian scientist working at Rutgers University.
Navalny, who is currently recuperating after being poisoned by Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, on Wednesday mocked Putin for suggesting he had poisoned himself for any reason.
US President Donald Trump was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian official earlier this month for assisting broker a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
