WikiLeaks' Julian Assange 'Should Get Nobel Peace Prize,' Says Russia

Despite being lambasted as "Batman and Robin" respectively, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have pledged support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and have gone as far as to suggest the beleaguered site's frontman be honored with a Nobel Peace Prize. (Scroll down for photos of worldwide protests in support of Assange and WikiLeaks)

The Guardian quotes a Kremlin source as urging international non-governmental organizations to think seriously about "nominating Assange as a Nobel Prize laureate." Speaking in Brussels, where Medvedev was attending a Russia-EU summit, the source told Russian news agencies that "public and NGOs should think of how to help him."

Russia's premier also personally pledged his support for WikiLeaks, slamming Assange's arrest as "undemocratic," according to the AFP. "Why was Mr. Assange hidden in jail? Is that democracy?" Putin asked in a press conference after a briefing with his French counterpart Francois Fillon Thursday. When asked about leaked U.S. diplomatic cables which cast him as Russia's "alpha-dog" ruler of a corrupt bureaucracy, Putin questioned whether the U.S. Foreign Service was a "crystal clean source of information."

Putin and Medvedev aren't the only world leaders backing Assange. In Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reportedly expressed solidarity with the Australian activist. "They have arrested him and I don't hear so much as a single protest for freedom of expression," he said.

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Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wear masks featuring the American National flags during a protest at Consulate General of the United States in Hong Kong.

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Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wear masks featuring the American National flags during a protest at Consulate General of the United States in Hong Kong.

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Comments

[Ergon]

09:17 AM on 12/13/2010

Reply to little pwny, there's a glitch further down:
Well, littlepwny, consent was NOT removed during intercourse.
1. The condom broke.
2. In the other case the non use of contraception was consensual.
3.The witnesses teweeted afterwards they had a good time (then attempted to remove them)
4. The prosecutor is making up the case as she moves along.
5. Charges have NOT been filed, since the evidence is so flimsy.
6. The horse you have in the race seems to be Republican in nature.
7. The puprpose of Assange's persecution seems to be to intimidate future whistleblowers from leaking to Wikileaks.

[erikqj]

08:32 PM on 12/12/2010

Soon, Putin and Medvedev will find their grins are pretty strained, if not completely gone. Wikileaks doesn't bother with borders; they go where the leaks take them. When that happens, Assange will be a step closer to deserving the prize. When the Chinese leadership joins the ranks of powers in pain, he'll pretty much be there. At least if the effects are as many hope, which I really hope they are...

[Ergon]

09:20 AM on 12/13/2010

Putin is grinning, because just as Americans rejoiced when the Russian Empire broke up, same is happening, to, the American one.

[erikqj]

11:09 AM on 12/13/2010

Well, breaking up or not, he certainly is pleased to see the US in hot water. Above all, I think he's delighted to see the US frantically trying to stop freedom of speech, after the West has criticized Russia for the very same thing for years.

The trouble is, as I've understood it, Assange is sitting on documents from Russian whistleblowers as well. That may very well turn the smile upside down...

[Chris Isner]

08:31 PM on 12/12/2010

Truth is SUCH a scary thing.

[JPalka]

06:29 PM on 12/12/2010

I don't know, but like da Silva says...

this guy has done a tremendous service to Americans, I do not see any (street) outcry at his arrest. Could somebody make a cartoon, maybe ?!

[mike72]

08:10 PM on 12/12/2010

Everyone of us somehow have the mentality of being the Emporoer of righteousness after so many decades of brainwashing into believeing that we are HOLDING THE MORALE HIGHGROUND and from which we find us to be exceptional and extraordinary.

Assange simpley pointed that "NO YOU AIN'T" You are just a member of a sciety that lives off the world's resource and invade other countries AT WILL (do a tally of how many invasions this society has invovled in the 1900s and 2000s)

He exposed our pretenteousness of being great and having the "God-Given" right to point fingers at others and commands resources and influences based on that believe of "God-Given" rights.

So we keep quiet. It gets too closed to our core interests, too close to our cheese, too close to the truth about what we REALLY ARE.

[JPalka]

11:27 PM on 12/12/2010

True. I was kind of trying to hope that everything that was done in the name of the people, was not really. I was trying to get a measure of it... Unfortunately, probably this is the answer.

Thanks, nevertheless

[Edward Standley]

02:24 PM on 12/12/2010

Anybody know if Anna Ardin has turned up? She was supposed to have gone to the West Bank but never showed.

[Drmhp]

08:43 PM on 12/12/2010

She is reporting to her CIA boss. The US wants the charges dropped when he gets there so we can get him to gitanimo. Ah don't you love the smell of our first amendment burning up. Did you know the FED and espionage act were created in 1917? Coincidence? I think not.

[Sockme]

09:44 AM on 12/12/2010

Assange has done us all a great service.

"the leaks are of unpreceden­ted importance because, at a stroke, they have enlightene­d the masses about what is being done in their name and have shown the corruption­, incompeten­ce – and sometimes wisdom – of our politician­s, corporatio­ns and diplomats. More significan­tly, we have been given a snapshot of the world as it is, rather than the edited account agreed upon by diverse elites, whose only common interest is the maintenanc­e of their power and our ignorance.­"

http://www­.guardian.­co.uk/comm­entisfree/­2010/dec/1­1/henry-po­rter-wikil­eaks-cable­s

[Gabrielle]

10:15 AM on 12/12/2010

You are absolutely right...the biggests loosers have been the american people....they know nothing about what's going on , the average person rellies on fox, cnn, msnbc....the media doesn,t deliver....all this, is by design, "keep'em ignorant and we can do what we want"...that's how heat-ler did it to the ger-mans......Julian Assange is truly a hero, shame to our president to go against him so vehemently

[Sockme]

10:18 AM on 12/12/2010

Yes, Obama’s failure to stand up for what is right in this case has lost him what remained of my support.

[mike72]

02:00 PM on 12/12/2010

Well said.

[mike72]

09:41 AM on 12/12/2010

Do you know why people hat Assange so much? That is because he is that kid who screams, "the Emporer has no clothes!"

That is the core: he exposes with EXPLICIT FACTS, EXTREMELY DETAILED FACTS, about how the so called democractic West (primarily the Anglos-J axis) controls the world at all levels and with what techniques. Most of these are understood among the people around the world but are too afraid for consequences to scream.

Until now.

Salute to Assange. The Emporer, and his gang of busy talking extraordinary "gentlemen" are in deed walking without clothes.

[abouttime]

06:56 PM on 12/14/2010

Awesome post!

Bush"s, Chenney, Clinton"s and now Obama ALL caught naked!

Not a pretty site, but the truth of the matter....

[philss]

09:25 AM on 12/12/2010

I agree with the russians
asange does deserve the nobel prize
truth is the best weapon in fighting for peace
even if the truth hurts

[joanrimart]

08:12 AM on 12/12/2010

As I have been saying all along in these pages...Rip Ob.ama off his peace prize and give it to Assange...

[edlindaspy]

06:03 AM on 12/12/2010

I don't think it's right that the jail where Assange is at, is not allowed to contact his attorney. I truly don't get this at all. He has not been charged with any crime yet they won't allow him out on bail. I guess he will have to get a team of lawyers together and sure someone will be sued over this right? I don't know, just asking. Since his rights are being violated? No attorney, no charges, no bail and confined to solitary?

The leaks being printed are like 1% of 250,000 pages? Why is it no one is telling the story other than the guardian, and NYT's? There are a boatload of web pages leaking the stories out but its not being printed in the newspapers? I sure would like to see the big bank scandal come out. And the corruption of money and oil in Iraq and wherever else it is.

[philss]

09:26 AM on 12/12/2010

you are seeing the power of the cia at work

[kenmei]

04:56 AM on 12/12/2010

Assange sould not be jailed for what appears to be 2 women asking for him to get tested for STDs. A far cry from anything illegal.
That being said, he is no hero, and is hardly anything but a crafty entrepeneur. WikiLeaks could have been something incredible, but instead it's a glorified TMZ. SNL wasn't far from the truth. WikiLeaks = ShockJock journalism, a body without a head. Though I truly believe in their freedom to do what they are doing.

OpenLeaks may hopefully become what WikiLeaks should have been, a source for leaks where something actually gets done about them, including follow up and decisions based on solutions.

For some to say the current Nobel Peace Prize winner isn't valid, shame on you.

[Aesculus glabra]

10:08 AM on 12/12/2010

Please, even the President seemed embarrassed by the "honor." The award has become a farce.

[Gabrielle]

10:21 AM on 12/12/2010

Unfortunately, I think he was embarassed because he knew better....

[albertdewey]

04:49 AM on 12/12/2010

Over the past 50 years the United States has become more like the enemies that we fought against and those same enemies have become more like what the United States used to be!

[dudehere]

03:09 AM on 12/12/2010

Isn't it Undemocratic to poison journalists who air the Kremlin's dirty laundry? Just saying.

[Red Herring]

06:56 AM on 12/12/2010

Well we can see how the USA handles it's people that reveal state secrets. Guantanamo, torture, show trials and now Wikileaks being held at the pleasure of the US State department, incognito. Worry about your own s**thole pf a country before trying to push critism on others.

[mp146]

07:05 AM on 12/12/2010

That is totally different of course, the Russian secrets shouldn't be exposed

[Mikeeee]

02:09 AM on 12/12/2010

His actions for peace are more than Obama's currently so that makes Assange (and Manning should be a co-nominee) at least as deserving and certainly more entitled to it than kissinger was, so I find myself torn, ever since kissinger won I realized what a hollow empty award it truly is. I think Assange and Manning deserve better than to be members of a club that would honor someone of so little character and political opportunism as kissinger.

[erl92]

01:30 AM on 12/12/2010

I would like to see all these trumped up charge on Assange dropped but the Nobel Peace Prize is just a little absurd. Freedom of information deserves rational responses to make it sound like a legitimate concern and associating two things that have nothing in common can do nothing but harm a reasonable solution.