Nobel Foundation reverses plan to invite Russia, Belarus and Iran envoys to awards

The Nobel Foundation said on Saturday it would not after all invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm later this year, reversing an earlier decision after widespread criticism.

Last year, the foundation did not invite the ambassadors of Russia and its ally Belarus because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The foundation said on Thursday it would invite them, and Iran’s ambassador, to this year’s prize award ceremonies in December, commenting that it sought to include even those who did not share the values of the foundation behind the Nobel Prize.

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That announcement prompted the leaders of several Swedish political parties to say they would boycott the ceremonies.

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“We recognise the strong reactions in Sweden,” the foundation said afterwards in a statement on Saturday.

“We, 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.”

The prize-winners are announced annually in early October and five of the six Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm every year after a nomination process that is kept secret for 50 years afterwards. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, where separate festivities are held.

Several Swedish politicians had immediately responded on Friday to the decision to invite the envoys by declaring they would boycott the ceremony.

“I looked forward to participating in the Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet,” Muharrem Demirok, the leader of Sweden’s Center Party, wrote on social media. “But as long as Russia wages its war against Ukraine I cannot participate in the same celebration as their ambassador.”

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Märta Stenevi, the leader of Sweden’s Green Party, said she would not attend either, saying “there is nothing to celebrate together with Russia’s ambassador”.

Even the right-wing leader, Jimmie Åkesson, head of the Sweden Democrats, had objected on Facebook and said he would not attend. “Respectable Swedish politicians with any democratic and moral compass at all do not celebrate with representatives from Russia, Belarus or Iran. Period,” he said.

The Nobel Foundation gives prizes each year in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, economics, literature and peace. Last year, although Russian and Belarusian diplomats were not invited to the ceremony, the Peace Prize was awarded to Memorial, a Russian human rights organisation, and Ales Bialiatski, a Belarusian activist, along with the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine.

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At the ceremony, Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the Peace Prize recipients, said the choices last year were meant to signal that the war in Ukraine must end. “Sometimes an effort for peace lies with civil society and not with state ambitions alone,” she said.

Iranian representatives were disinvited last year after Iran’s brutal crackdown on protests that broke out after a woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by Iran’s morality police after accusations of violating the country’s conservative dress code, and then died in custody. The demonstrations quickly broadened to target the ruling clerical establishment and societal grievances including corruption, the ailing economy and social and political restrictions.

In the ensuing crackdown, security forces arrested thousands of protesters and killed hundreds, according to Iran Human Rights, a group based in Norway, and the United Nations. At least seven have been executed.

Although the demonstrations have largely quieted, authorities continue to harass or detain people, including relatives of protesters who were killed, in an effort to silence them before the anniversary of the protests this month. – Reuters/New York Times