In terms of who actually deserves the Nobel Peace Prize 2015, I’m convinced it’s the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
For all his multiple flaws, one thing is undeniable: Poroshenko is a fanatic of peace, peace at all costs. This fellow pretty much buried his future in his own country as a result of his obsessive, single-minded dedication to peace.
Poroshenko is not loved in Ukraine precisely because of his obsession with peace. For many people, peace is not worth the sacrifices made to achieve it.
Yet, Poroshenko perseveres. He shakes Putin’s hand (which visibly brings him to the point of a cerebral hemorrhage every time), listens patiently to Merkel’s prevarication, puts up with Hollande’s posturing, stoically accepts Obama’s snubs, stretches himself paper-thin to please the IMF, and pushes the immensely unpopular legislation that can offer a glimmer of a hope for peace through the Parliament.
The result of all these efforts – which most Ukrainians see as betrayal and pro-Putin waffling – is that the casualties are lower than we would have seen with a more aggressive stance and there is now even reason for a timid hope that the war might be drawing to an end.
With all due respect to Merkel, what war did she stop in 2015? Poroshenko, in the meanwhile, has actually managed to engineer a situation where an actual war transformed into a tense, annoying, insufficient but still peace. And he did that in spite of Merkel creating one obstacle after another to the cause of peace, by the way.

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