The Nobel Foundation has decided to cancel the invitation to Russia, Belarus and Iran to the award ceremony in Stockholm.
This is stated in the statement of the Foundation.
They emphasized that the previous decision to invite Russians, Belarusians and Iranians was intended to emphasize the values of the Nobel Prize. The foundation recalled that yearʼs Peace Prize, which was awarded to human rights defenders from Russia and Belarus, as well as to Ukrainians documenting Russian war crimes.
“We acknowledge the strong reaction in Sweden that completely overshadowed this message. Therefore, we decided to repeat last yearʼs exception to the usual practice, that is, not to invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm," the Nobel Foundation noted.
- In 2022, the Nobel Foundation informed that the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus would not be invited to the banquet because of Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine. Iran was also not invited last year — Tehran has long been criticized for violating human rights.
- On September 1, it became known that Russia, Belarus and Iran were again invited to a banquet on the occasion of the Nobel Prize award in Stockholm. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine opposed.