Russia Proposes Julian Assange For The Nobel Peace Prize
Moscow shocked the entire world when it announced on Thursday that it supported the idea of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, who is currently arrested in the United Kingdom.
The shocking proposition is construed by most analysts as a way of getting back at the United States, especially in the context of the Nobel Peace Prize quarrel over ascribing it to a Chinese dissident.
Russia stands by China, while the United States is pressing China to release Li Xiaobo. Therefore, by making this proposition, Russian authorities could mock the prize itself by using a particular sense of irony (it would not be for the first time they do that: in 2009, Putin told a Romanian reporter Russia could sell his country gas at a low price, so that the Ukrainians may buy it afterwards from Romania; it proved to be a way of expressing contempt with the Romanian president).
Of course, Russians may also be very serious about it.
Kremlin says non-governmental organizations should consider very seriously the idea of nominating Assange as Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which per se, one has to admit, is an excellent idea.
The source from Dmitry Medvedev’s office expressed concern over Assange’s fate and said that nominating him as Nobel laureate could help him a lot.
It would seem that the sudden Russian endorsement of Assange’s work is motivated by the idea that the releases of 
WikiLeaks damage American interests on the long term all over the world far worse than they damage Russia’s.
The first Russian reaction to the WikiLeaks was negative because it referred to Russia as a “corrupted kleptocracy,” and asserted that the Russia’s leadership is totally above the law and only interested in amounting fortunes.
Russian president dismissed the leaks as “unworthy of comment,” while Putin’s spokesman considered them as pure speculations lacking any evidence.
Earlier this year, Russian Federal Security Service had came to the attention of the public as WikiLeaks released some documents referring to their black ops.
Then, the U.S. cable referring to NATO’s plans to defend the Baltic countries came, causing “bewilderment” in Moscow.
It was at this time that the leaders of Russia might have wanted to sit down and enjoy the show further. Who knows what could come up, and give Russia leverages at least as big as the one with NATO.
That would explain the attitude of Sergey Lavrov, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who preferred to take a “philosophical” stance on WikiLeak, while hardliner nationalist Dmitry Rogozin, Russia ambassador to NATO, declares himself a defender of Assange’s cause.
