Congratulations from Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko and environmentalist

06.10.2017

According to the news agency Meduza, the Nobel Peace Prize 2017 has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) for “drawing attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons”.

The Nobel Committee also noted that the group campaigning for nuclear disarmament “achieved signing of an agreement on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was opened for signature at the UN headquarters in New York on July 7, 2017. Since then, 53 states have signed it. However, yet none of the states possessing nuclear weapons has signed it.

ICAN is a network structure that joins together public organisations from over 100 countries of the world. ICAN has been cooperating with the St. Petersburg environmental organisation Bellona, headed by Alexander Nikitin, environmentalist, human rights activist, one of the leaders of the Green Russia faction of the Yabloko party.  Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Deputy Chairman and environmentalist, who took an active part in the work of international ICAN conferences, headed Bellona from 2008 until 2015.

“This is an outstanding example of the activities of a non-profit organisation,” Rybakov commented on the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the ICAN. “The case when an NGO has been influencing in a civilised and constructive way governments of different countries, facilitating the course of control over nuclear weapons. I hope that due to this case among other things the major nuclear powers (Russia in particular) will pay more attention to the negotiation process for reduction and perspective elimination of nuclear weapons. I am very glad to congratulate my colleagues,” Nikolai Rybakov said.