Russian President Vladimir Putin will appear on the Nobel committee’s agenda for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, possibly alongside several Russian dissidents.
Putin is one of 278 candidates — a record for the prestigious prize — who have been nominated and the nominees include such notables as Edward Snowden, Pope Francis and the individual formerly known as Bradley Manning.
Putin is believed to have been nominated for his role in averting a Western military strike on Syria and negotiating the agreement with the Bashar al-Assad regime to surrender its arsenal of chemical weapons.
However, Putin’s recent actions in Ukraine are also under assessment by the Nobel committee and his chances for winning the prize are considered very slim. In more bad news for the Russian president, a Moscow newspaper that has been critical of Putin was also nominated for the prize.
Novaya Gazeta, which was founded by the former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev with some of his Nobel Prize earnings, has had several of its journalists murdered and has been a frequent target for cyberattacks.
Putin was also nominated for the prize last year.