China's substitute Nobel honors Putin with prize

Two substitute students recognized a Chinese Peace Prize Friday on behalf of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was privileged for boosting Russia's rank and devastating government opposed forces in Chechnya, the prize planners said.

The Confucius Peace Prize was speedily initiated last year as a substitute to the Nobel Peace Prize which had just honored jailed Chinese rebel Liu Xiaobo. The 2011 prize observance held a day before this year's Nobel Prize is honored in Oslo, Norway, and as Nobel made new calls for China to release Liu from prison.

The Confucius Peace Prize organization declared last month that Putin had been selected to get this year's award, saying that during his 2000-2008 times as president Putin "brought outstanding development to the military might and political position of Russia." It also quoted Putin's eliminating of government opposed strengths in Chechnya.

The validation considers somewhat unsure given authoritarian moves in Putin's policies and his fame for imprisoned political opponents and crushing down on government rivals. Continuing demonstrations in Moscow over a parliamentary votes considered marred by bogus have raised the greatest ever confront to Putin, who is looking for returning to the presidency next year.

Qiao Damo, head of the China International Peace Research Center, said he expectations the Russian exchange students, who were evidently chosen to stand in for Putin, will be able to give the prize to Putin, either in Beijing when he next tours or in Moscow.

Both are studying at Beijing Language and Culture University, Qiao said in a telephone interview. He provided their names as Katya and Maria but was uncertain of their surnames. Two students from Belarus were also present, he said.

The Confucius Prize subsidizers are professors and academics who say they are autonomous of China's government.

It was started to encourage traditional Chinese and Asian thoughts of peace, Qiao said. He condemned the Nobel Committee's standard for selecting peace prize receivers over the past two years, saying it had "floated more and further away from the idea of peace."

Liu's win furious the government and Chinese nationalists, who blamed the Nobel committee of interfering in China's lawful network as part of a plot to dishonor the nation. Liu is serving an 11-year jail punishment for co-authoring an appeal for political reorganization.

Qiao said he criticized of Liu as a peace prize receivers because Liu had "disgraced his homeland" with his available views, and referred remarks Liu made about how the Chinese region of Hong Kong had helped from being an English colony.

"We feel it's false to grab colonies by force and violence," Qiao said.

In the mean time, a group of five Nobel Peace Prize victors and human rights campaigners called for Liu's instant and absolute release from jail. The International Committee of Support to Liu Xiaobo said in an email that Liu is the only Nobel laureate currently in jail, and blamed the international society of overlooking his plight.

"Regrettably, the punishing to 11 years in jail considers to be forgotten gradually but steadily outside China," said the group.

The campaign for Liu's release as well as Nobel victors Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Desmond Tutu. Also involved are past Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel and campaigners from Reporters Without Borders and other rights groups.

The declaration of Liu's Nobel prize last year applauded China's cracked, persecuted dissident community and brought calls from the U.S., Germany and others for his release. It also furious the Chinese authorities harassed and captured dozens of Liu's fans in the weeks that followed.

It consequences in severe treatment of Liu's wife, Liu Xia, who has broadly been detain incommunicado, efficiently under house detention, watched by police, without phone or Internet access and disallowed from seeing all but a few family members.