Apparently all a world leader has to do nowadays to nab a Nobel nomination is make a geopolitically self-interested effort to ‘secure’ the chemical weapons stockpile of an authoritarian government he’s supplying with other weaponry to the tune of $1.5 billion in arms contracts.
Brandon Flowers put it so well. “This is the world that we live in.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has received a Nobel Peace Prize nomination from the the International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World (acronym FULLOFIT), a Russian advocacy group, citing his recent role in crafting an international resolution to chemical weapons use in Syria’s ongoing civil war.
“Being the leader of one of the leading nations of the world, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin makes efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity not only on the territory of his own country but also actively promotes settlement of all conflicts arising on the planet,” the group’s nomination letter read, reported The New York Times.
The organization contrasted Putin’s nomination with President Barack Obama’s receipt of the prize — someone who one advocate characterized as less deserving in light of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Russian leader’s approach to Syria.
“I think our president, who is trying to stop the bloodshed, who is trying to help to resolve this conflict situation through a political dialogue, through diplomatic language, deserves this title more [than Obama],” Iosif Kobzon, a member of Russia’s Parliament, said at a news conference on the Putin nomination.
Sidenote: remember Chechnya and a different op-ed Putin published in The Grey Lady?
