BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 14. Ruben Vardanyan's name is staining the Nobel Peace Prize's image, says the article in The National Interest magazine, an American bimonthly international relations publication, Trend reports.
The article references an investigative report titled "The Troika Laundromat," which highlights Ruben Vardanyan, a fugitive Russian billionaire of Armenian origin, who proclaimed himself a so-called "leader" of separatists in Azerbaijan's Karabakh, and engaged in illegal activities concerning the source of his income. Consequently, Vardanyan's inclusion on the list of nominees is described as "raising eyebrows".
"The prestigious prize’s nomination process has become a free-for-all exercise in zero-cost PR for some of the world’s most disreputable people," he added.
The author questions why the Nobel authorities allow such damage to their prestigious reputation.
"The answer is bizarrely simple: their own rules prevent them, now as in 1939, from blocking such reputationally damaging nominations. To be granted the illustrious status of nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, all it takes is for one person from this bewildering, open-ended list to put forward your name—no questions asked. And while the Nobel Prize Committee does not itself announce names, there is nothing to prevent anyone else, candidate or lobbyist, from bragging about a trumped-up nomination. That simple fact explains why someone like Vardanyan gets through the door," the article concludes.
Vardanyan was detained by the law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan in September 2023 while attempting to escape from Karabakh. He is charged under articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code for financing terrorism, participating in the creation and operation of illegal armed groups, and illegally crossing the state border of Azerbaijan. At present, investigative and operational measures against him are underway.