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Nobel Peace Prize winners blast Putin war on Ukraine

Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yan Rachinsky blasted President Vladimir Putin’s “insane and criminal” war on Ukraine in his acceptance speech in the Norwegian capital Oslo on Saturday. Rachinsky, from Russia’s human rights organization Memorial, claimed resistance to Russia is known as “fascism” under Putin, adding this has become “the ideological justification for the insane and criminal war of aggression against Ukraine.” The Associated Press has the story:

Nobel Peace Prize winners blast Putin war on Ukraine

Newslooks- OSLO, Norway (AP)

The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine shared their visions of a fairer world and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine during Saturday’s award ceremony in the Norwegian capital.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Nobel Committee, left, and representatives of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, from second left: Natalia Pinchuk, the wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, Yan Rachinsky, chairman of the International Memorial Board and Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of the Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Oleksandra Matviichuk of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties dismissed calls for a political compromise that would allow Russia to retain some of the illegally annexed Ukrainian territories, saying that “fighting for peace does not mean yielding to pressure of the aggressor, it means protecting people from its cruelty.”

Oleksandra Matviychuk of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, right, receives applauds of audience after her speech during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber)

“Peace cannot be reached by a country under attack laying down its arms,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. “This would not be peace, but occupation.”

Professor Morten Meldal receives the 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)

Matviichuk repeated her earlier call for Putin — and Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who provided his country’s territory for Russian troops to invade Ukraine — to face an international tribunal.

Representatives of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates Natalia Pinchuk, the wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, Yan Rachinsky, chairman of the International Memorial Board and Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of the Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties receive awards from the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s leader Berit Reiss-Andersen during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

“We have to prove that the rule of law does work, and justice does exist, even if they are delayed,” she said.

Matviichuk was named a co-winner of the 2022 peace prize in October along with Russian human rights group Memorial and Ales Bialiatski, head of the Belarusian rights group Viasna.

From left, Norway’s King Harald, Norway’s Queen Sonja, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Under the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1901. Saturday’s award ceremonies took place at the Oslo City Hall in the presence of King Olav V and Queen Sonja, while the other Nobel prizes were formally presented during ceremonies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, later the same day.

Oleksandra Matviychuk of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, centre, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Bialiatski, who is jailed in Belarus pending his trial and faces a prison sentence of up to 12 years, wasn’t allowed to send his speech. He shared a few thoughts when he met in jail with his wife, Natallia Pinchuk, who spoke on his behalf at the award ceremony.

Oleksandra Matviychuk of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, 4th left, receives applauds of audience after her speech during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber)

“In my homeland, the entirety of Belarus is in a prison,” Bialiatski said in the remarks delivered by Pinchuk — in reference to a sweeping crackdown on the opposition after massive protests against an August 2020 fraud-tainted vote that Lukashenko used to extend his rule. “This award belongs to all my human rights defender friends, all civic activists, tens of thousands of Belarusians who have gone through beatings, torture, arrests, prison.”

Norway’s King Harald, Norway’s Queen Sonja, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon, centre, attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Bialiatski is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel Prizes to receive the award while in prison or detention.

Professor Philip H. Dybvig receives the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)

In the remarks delivered by his wife, he cast Lukashenko as a tool of Putin, saying the Russian leader is seeking to establish his domination across the ex-Soviet lands.

Doctor Ben S. Bernanke, receives the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)

“I know exactly what kind of Ukraine would suit Russia and Putin — a dependent dictatorship,” he said. “The same as today’s Belarus, where the voice of the oppressed people is ignored and disregarded.”

Professor Douglas W. Diamond receives the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)

The triple peace prize award was seen as a strong rebuke to Putin, not only for his action in Ukraine but for the Kremlin’s crackdown on domestic opposition and its support for Lukashenko’s brutal repression of dissenters.

Oleksandra Matviychuk of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, left, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (Javad Pars/Pool via AP)

Russia’s Supreme Court shut down Memorial, one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organizations that was widely acclaimed for its studies of political repression in the Soviet Union, in December 2021.

Natalia Pinchuk, the wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was shared by jailed Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the laureates “have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.” (AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber)

Prior to that, the Russian government had declared the organization a “foreign agent” — a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations that can discredit the targeted organization.

Yan Ratchinskij, chairman of the International Memorial Board speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber)

Jan Rachinsky of Memorial said in his speech that “today’s sad state of civil society in Russia is a direct consequence of its unresolved past.”

He particularly denounced the Kremlin’s attempts to denigrate the history, statehood and independence of Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, saying that it “became the ideological justification for the insane and criminal war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Yan Ratchinskij, chairman of the International Memorial Board speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (Rodrigo Freitas/NTB Scanpix via AP)

“One of the first victims of this madness was the historical memory of Russia itself,” Rachinsky said. “Now, the Russian mass media refer to the unprovoked armed invasion of a neighboring country, the annexation of territories, terror against civilians in the occupied areas, and war crimes as justified by the need to fight fascism.”

Oleksandra Matviychuk of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

While all the winners spoke in unison to condemn the war in Ukraine, there also were some marked differences.

Matviichuk specifically declared that “the Russian people will be responsible for this disgraceful page of their history and their desire to forcefully restore the former empire.”

Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Nobel Committee, left, stands next to, from left: Natallia Pintsyuk, representing her husband, the jailed activist Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, Jan Rachynskij, representing the Russian organization Memorial and Oleksandra Matviytsyuk, representing the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) receive the Nobel Peace Prize 2022 in Oslo town hall, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. (Javad Parsa/Pool via AP)

Rachinsky described the Russian aggression against its neighbor as a “monstrous burden,” but strongly rejected the notion of “national guilt.”

“It is not worth talking about ‘national’ or any other collective guilt at all — the notion of collective guilt is abhorrent to fundamental human rights principles,” he said. “The joint work of the participants of our movement is based on a completely different ideological basis — on the understanding of civic responsibility for the past and for the present.”

From left: Natallia Pintsyuk, representing her husband, the jailed activist Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, Jan Rachynskij, representing the Russian organization Memorial and Oleksandra Matviytsyuk, representing the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) during the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 in Oslo town hall, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. (Rodrigo Freitas/NTB Scanpix via AP)

The Nobel prizes for chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics were presented later Saturday. After a two-year COVID-19 pandemic break, award ceremonies took place at Stockholm’s Concert Hall with nearly 1,500 invited guests.

An overview of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was shared by jailed Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the laureates “have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.” The prize was seen as a strong rebuke to the authoritarian rule of Putin. (AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber)

Organizers said there were a record number of prize winners present in Stockholm this year as the Nobel Foundation had invited also those laureates who received the prize in 2020 and 2021 but missed the festivities due to the pandemic.

Annie Ernaux receives the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)

A brief introduction of each prize subject was followed by a ceremony where King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden handed the 2022 Nobel winners their awards complete with fanfares and music by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Professor K. Barry Sharpless receives the 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)

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