Nobel Foundation takes back invites to Russia, Iran for prize ceremony
The Nobel Foundation has withdrawn its invitations to Russia and Iran to attend the prize ceremony after an international outcry.
Belarus is also on the outs with the organization, which bestows the famous Peace Prize and other awards each year. The three nations were excluded last year, as well — Russia and Belarus over the war against Ukraine and Iran for its human rights record and vicious crackdowns on protests. The decision to include them this year raised hackles in Sweden, which hosts the prizes, and in Ukraine.
Ambassadors of countries with diplomatic missions in Sweden are usually all invited, but several politicians suggested they would boycott the ceremony if dignitaries from the three nations, especially Russia, were present.
The goal of inviting the them was to counteract a global trend in which “dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced,” Nobel Foundation Executive Director Vidar Helgesen said Friday. “We are now broadening our invitations to celebrate and understand the Nobel Prize and the importance of free science, free culture and free, peaceful societies.”
A day or two later, the foundation said that the invitations would be taken back because that message was getting lost in the controversy.
“We recognize the strong reactions in Sweden, which completely overshadowed this message,” the foundation said in a statement. “The board of the Nobel Foundation, therefore, choose to repeat last year’s exception to regular practice — that is, to not invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm. As before, all ambassadors will be invited to the ceremony in Oslo.”
Ukraine called Saturday’s about-face “a victory for humanism,” BBC News reported.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya of the Belarusian opposition on Friday called the reversal “a clear sign of solidarity with the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples” and asserted that it was a better way to “show your commitment to the principles and values of Nobel.”
The awards in the fields of medicine, physics, literature and economics are given out in Stockholm by the king of Sweden every Dec. 10. The same day, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held in Norway’s capital, Oslo.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who had objected to their inclusion but had not gone so far as to threaten a boycott, said he welcomed the decision.
“The many and strong reactions show that the whole of Sweden unambiguously stand on Ukraine’s side against Russia’s appalling war of aggression,” he said on X, the former Twitter.
With News Wire Services
