Putin nominated for Nobel Peace Prize (not joking)

by NW Spotlight

CBS News reported on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Putin’s 2008 invasion of Georgia did not deter the nomination, and so it’s possible that his 2014 invasion of Ukraine won’t deter his actually winning the Nobel Peace Prize – winner to be announced the second Friday of October.

If Putin were to win, he would join past Nobel Peace Prize winners such as President Obama in 2009, Al Gore in 2007, Yasser Arafat in 1994 (shared Prize), and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. There was no Nobel Peace Prize for President Ronald Reagan, who had implored Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall” in West Berlin in 1987.

Explaining how a nomination could be known at this time, CBS News noted that “Although nominations are kept secret for 50 years, thousands of people around the world are eligible to propose candidates, including any member of any national assembly, and many make their picks public.” There were a record 278 nominations this year.