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.
Clarissa's Blog 
Poroshenko will never be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize, because the committee that awards that prize is very left wing, and the lefties of the world consider Poroshenko to be the villain in the Ukrainian situation — the “fascist” (as he’s labeled in many articles) who refuses to listen to sage advice from Merkel and Hollende to be “reasonable” with Putin.
A number of European papers are guessing that Merkel will get the prize, while liberal U.S. papers have picked John Kerry for the nuclear deal with Iran.
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We don’t yet know where the deal to Iran will lead. I’m hopeful but until we see the results, rewarding anybody is a mistake, I believe.
As for Poroshenko, Ukrainians dislike him for being way too conciliatory towards Putin. 🙂
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I think Kerry is a terrible choice, I’m just reporting the scuttlebutt. As for the Ukraine, I don’t see any “peace” there yet to award anybody for.
But the committee will definitely announce a winner next Friday — no way they’ll admit that nobody has earned that prize this year.
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The heavy artillery has been withdrawn on both sides of the border, and the shooting has stopped.
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So do you see a prolonged stalemate at this point?
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Won’t speak for Clarissa, but Putin’s strategy (since temporarily giving up the land bridge to Crimea* idea) has been more to irritate and/or create financial burdens for Ukraine than actually take over and have to feed the feckless locals.
without a landbridge Crimea is a very, very, very expensive baubel that’s really not worth it except for the vatniki who can say “yeah we’re poorer, everything’s going to crap, but Crimea is ours!”
*Russian, rednecks, very loosely
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Exactly. The terrorists in Donbass are screaming to the skies that Russia has abandoned them, that they have been betrayed, and that the war has been lost.
In the meanwhile, for the past 4 days, Ukraine has not even been mentioned on Russian TV. This is huge because until 4 days ago it was discussed obsessively, all the time. Now it’s all Syria. Selling the war in Syria to Russians is proving to be very hard for Putin. But it’s easier than explaining the embarrassment of being trounced in Ukraine.
The whole thing is such an embarrassment to Putin who, as Cliff says, has no idea what to do with the Crimea or with the failed invasion of the Donbass. The Russians fell victims to their own propaganda. And that’s hilarious.
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As a Ukrainian, I can see thousands of mistakes Poroshenko had made. And as a Ukrainian Canadian, I fully agree with Clarissa.
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Mustafa Dzemilev has deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for a long time.
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OOps typed his name wrong. Dzhemilev.
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Absolutely. I would be overjoyed if it went to him.
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Unfortunately, he’s on the wrong side as far as the Norwegians on the committee are concerned.
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I would nominate Jeremy Corbyn for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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What has he done to deserve it? Gotten elected inside his own party? 🙂
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He supports the BDS movement against Israel and praises Putin. What other qualifications does he need? 🙂
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Ah well, in that case. . . 🙂
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Until he was elected leader of the Labour Party he was chairman of the “Stop the War” coalition and wants to include the abolition of nuclear weapons part of his party’s policy. If Britain abandons nuclear weapons (as Soutyh Africa did 25 years ago), it would make a more significant contribution to peace than any promise of Iran not to acquire such weapons.
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I’m not sure the Nobel should serve as an award for intentions. Or we could just start awarding it to Miss Universe contestants who all insist that “world peace” is their goal.
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True, but, unlike many other politicians, he’s resisting the attempts of the media to goad him into war.
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He can’t be goaded into war, he doesn’t have any power.
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