The head of administration of Norwegian Nobel institute Dag-Kuhle Gotovac did not confirm Geir Lundestad’s (director of Norwegian Nobel Institute) words that the president of Russsian Federation Vladimir Putin is nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.
The journalist asked if this information stated by Mr. Lundestad is true and how does it go together with the internal Nobel institute nondisclosure agreements. (They are ot allowed to mention the names of the nominants to the media or to the nominants themselves). Mr. Gotovac replied:
This shows that any preliminary information about the candidates for the Nobel Peace prize is not official and not confirmed. It is obvious that the deployment of Russian troops on Ukrainian territory is perceived as a farce in Ukraine. However in Russia they see it as a recognition and support of Putin’s plans by Europe.
Lets note that in the vast majority of media any information about the nominants for the Nobel prize does not come directly from Lundestad. It comes from the way journalists twist his quotations. Besides Putin, there have been rumors that other candidates could be Pope Francis and Edward Snowden
Moreover, it clearly states in the Nobel Committee rules about candidates that «If information about candidates, speculating on who and when won a Nobel prize comes up, you should take it as an ingenuous guess or the person who spread the information has nothing in common with the nomination”. According to the committee tradition the list with Nobel prize candidates is kept a secret for 50 years.
