War Prize competition to end in June

The date when final results of the War Prize competition are to be summed up has been postponed till June 15 in view of the recent tragic developments in Grozny. The War Prize organizational committee keeps on receiving names of new nominees.

Tamara Kalayeva, human rights activist: "From 51 to 70 percent of Russian citizens pardoning the war deserve the right to get the "group" War Prize. Putin, Eltsin, Zhirinovsky, Rogozin, Budanov, and Romanov are pseudo patriots, pseudo advocates of Russia's interests. They in fact lead Russia to inevitable failure and disintegration."

Lema Usmanov, historian, political scientist, California, US: "Within the framework of one research project, I already had to search for the answer to the painful question who was the main scoundrel who persuaded Boris Eltsin into starting this bloodshed. And the name of this main military criminal is Sergey Shakhray. He was the main man who convinced Mr Eltsin that Russia would benefit in all respects and all the problems would allegedly be solved at once if it started this war. And all the others, even including Mr Putin, zealously continue the big bloodshed that started one day."

The War Prize action was announced by the Institute for Social Development of Timur Aliyev on March 22. It is to end with the presentation of an original "anti-prize" to a politician or a public figure who has made "the greatest contribution" to the process of starting and developing the war in Chechnya (1994-2004).

Editors note: See also the article "New candidates nominated for War Prize".