In Oslo, Nobel Peace Prize laureates show their determination against Putin

The three Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Oleksandra Matviitchuk from the Ukrainian Centre, Ian Ratchinski from the NGO Memorial and Natalia Pintchouk who will receive the award for her husband who is in prison, Ales Beliatski.

© AP - Markus Schreiber

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3 mins

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this Saturday, December 10 to a trio made up of an imprisoned Belarusian activist and two entities, the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) and the Russian NGO Memorial, hit by an order of dissolution of the Russian authorities.

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It is a highly symbolic and very geopolitical ceremony which was held this Saturday in Oslo.

Last October, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, the Nobel committee wanted to send a strong message by awarding its most prestigious prize to a Belarusian activist, 

, and two Ukrainian and Russian NGOs, the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties (CCL ) and

.

Coming from the three main protagonist states in the conflict, all three were crowned for their commitment to " 

 " in the face of authoritarian forces.

The Nobel didn't dent their pugnacity, even though they didn't show any signs of outpouring with each other during the award ceremony.

" 

 ," said the head of the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), Oleksandra Matviychuk.

“ 

 ,” she said.

Her voice choking with emotion in her speech at Oslo City Hall adorned with red Siberian flowers, Oleksandra Matviychuk again called for the creation of an international tribunal to try "Putin, (his ally, 

leader Belarusian Alexander)

 ”.

His Russian co-winner, the president of Memorial, Ian Ratchinski, for his part denounced the “ 

 ” inherited from the USSR which “ 

 ”.

Vladimir Putin's Russia has hijacked the historical meaning of the anti-fascist struggle " 

", he said.

From now on, “ 

 ”, he lamented. 

Fervent defenders of rights and freedoms in Russia and Belarus

Founded in 1989, Memorial has worked for decades to shed light on the crimes committed under Stalin's totalitarian regime and to preserve the memory of its victims while collecting information on the violation of freedoms and rights in Russia.

The NGO was dissolved at the end of 2021 by the Russian courts, which also ordered the seizure of its offices in Moscow on October 7, the same evening as the Nobel Prize was awarded to the organization.

For eight years, the CCL has been documenting war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine.

Crimes for which Oleksandra Matviychuk would like to see Vladimir Putin, as well as his Belarusian counterpart and ally Alexander Lukashenko, be brought before international justice.

The third Nobel laureate, Ales Beliatski, father of the human rights NGO Viasna, has been imprisoned since July 2020 pending a trial where he is liable to twelve years in prison for “smuggling”. cash for the opposition to the repressive regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

In his absence, it was therefore his wife Natalia Pintchouk who received the award.

She repeated some of her husband's words, in particular those in which he calls to stand up against " 

".

Currently thousands of people are behind bars in Belarus for political reasons and they are all my brothers and sisters.

Nothing will stop people's thirst for freedom.

Natalia Pintchouk delivers a message from her imprisoned husband Ales Beliatski

Jelena Tomic

► 

(

AFP)

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