Putin’s ‘insane and criminal war’ on Ukraine is condemned by a Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

CNN — In his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yan Rachinsky blasted President Vladimir Putin’s “insane and criminal” war on Ukraine.

Rachinsky, a member of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, claimed that under Putin, opposition to Russia is referred to as “fascism,” and that this has become “the ideological justification for the insane and criminal war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Memorial, one of Russia’s most well-known and respected human rights organizations, worked for more than three decades to expose Stalinist-era abuses and atrocities before being ordered to close by the country’s Supreme Court late last year.

Representatives of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, from left, Natalia Pinchuk, Ales Bialiatski’s wife, Yan Rachinsky, chairman of the International Memorial Board, and Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, accept the awards at Oslo City Hall.
Representatives of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, from left, Natalia Pinchuk, Ales Bialiatski’s wife, Yan Rachinsky, chairman of the International Memorial Board, and Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, accept the awards at Oslo City Hall.
Markus Schreiber/Agence France-Presse
In her acceptance speech, Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk called for an international tribunal to bring Putin and Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko to justice for “war crimes.”

Matviichuk, who accepted the award on behalf of her human rights organization, the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, stated that this would “ensure justice for those affected by the war.”

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A woman demonstrates what it’s like to live with the aftereffects of Putin’s war.
CNN, 03:07
Matviichuk warned that war criminals should not be prosecuted only after authoritarian regimes fall, saying that “justice cannot wait.”

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“We need to set up an international tribunal to bring Putin, Lukashenko, and other war criminals to justice,” she added.

On Saturday, Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties, two human rights organizations from Russia and Ukraine, were officially awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022, alongside the jailed Belarusian advocate Ales Bialiatski.

At a ceremony, Bialiatski’s wife accepted the award on his behalf. The prize money is 10,000,000 Swedish krona ($900,000) divided among the three winners.

The new laureates were recognized for their “outstanding efforts to document war crimes, human rights violations, and power abuses” in their respective countries.

“They have long promoted the right to criticize power and protect citizens’ fundamental rights,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement announcing the winners in October.