BURSTRussian President Vladimir Putin praised President Trump’s peace-building efforts Friday, citing his involvement in brokering a peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
“He’s really doing a lot to resolve such complex crises that have lasted for years and even decades,” Putin said at a summit of former Soviet Union countries in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
His remarks came in response to a reporter’s question over whether he felt Trump had been unjustly passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader and democracy activist María Corina Machado Friday morning.
He praised the president for his stated role in facilitating a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, calling it “historic” if it holds.
Putin didn’t directly say whether he believed Trump deserved the prize, but he said the committee had made decisions that had done “enormous damage” to the Nobel Prize’s prestige in the past.
“There have been cases where the committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to people who have done nothing for peace,” Putin said. “A person comes, good or bad, and [gets it] in a month, in two months, boom. For what? He didn’t do anything at all.”
“In my view, these decisions have done enormous damage to the prestige of this prize,” he continued.
Former President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, less than a year into his presidency, for his role in diplomacy. Obama himself at the time argued he did not deserve the prize.
Before the prize was announced on Friday, Trump implied last month the committee would probably give it to someone undeserving.
“They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing,” Trump said. “They’ll give it to the guy who wrote a book about the mind of Donald Trump and what it took to solve the wars. The Nobel Prize will go to a writer.”
Machado on Friday dedicated her award to the people of her country and to President Trump for his “decisive support” for democracy in Venezuela.