Six years ago, the Nobel Foundation was teetering, destabilized by the biggest scandal of the #metoo era in Sweden. Since then, the institution, created in 1900 to manage the legacy of Alfred Nobel, has spared no effort to make people forget the dishonor caused by the Swedish Academy, responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature and accused of to have concealed the sexual assaults committed by the husband of one of the academicians.
Barely recovered from this sad episode, here she is again in turmoil. In question: his decision to invite to the traditional award ceremony, on December 10, the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran, stationed in Stockholm, all banned in 2022. In a press release, published on 31 August, the foundation evoked a “back to normal practice” and recalled that in 2022, diplomats from the three countries had been invited to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo.
Two days later, Saturday September 2, in the middle of the day, she reversed course, taking note of the “strong reactions” caused by his action. The three diplomats are therefore no longer welcome at the concert hall in Stockholm, where the Nobel Prizes in Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics are awarded each year to the winners by the King. The Court had just announced that Carl XVI Gustaf had not decided whether he would participate in the ceremony and that he was waiting to see “what would happen in the following days”.
“An acceptance of the brutal actions” of Russia
The day before, the Ukrainian ambassador stationed in Stockholm, Andrii Plakhotniuk, had expressed his incomprehension. In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), he wondered: “What has changed since last year, when the organization took a clear stand for peace and humanism? » This invitation, he warned, “will likely be interpreted by Russia as implicit acceptance of its brutal actions.”
In a rare move, several diplomats stationed in Stockholm lent their support to Mr. Plakhotniuk, including the French ambassador to Sweden, Etienne de Gonneville, who shared the message from his Ukrainian counterpart, stating that he was ” All right ” with him. In a joint tweet, the ambassadors of the three Baltic states called on the Foundation to “reconsider” her decision, considering that she “would be interpreted by Russia and Belarus as acceptance of their brutal actions”.
Representatives of the Belarusian opposition in Stockholm also reacted, recalling that the invitation was addressed to “those who keep Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski in solitary confinement, in a prison where torture is practised”. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, along with the Russian NGO Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties (CLC), the 60-year-old Belarusian human rights activist was sentenced to ten years from jail in March.
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