Putin Lauds Trumps Peace Efforts While Criticizing Nobel Committees Selections

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin commended U.S. President Donald Trump for his attempts to establish a ceasefire in the Middle East. He criticized the Nobel Committee for granting its peace prize to individuals he alleged had not earned it, a statement seemingly aimed at winning Trump’s approval, especially as the U.S. president’s attitude toward Moscow has cooled amid stalled progress in the Ukraine conflict.

During a press conference in Tajikistan, Putin asserted that Trump «is certainly making an effort and working on these issues—aiming for peace and tackling complex global challenges,» highlighting that the “most evident instance” of such efforts is the recent ceasefire in Gaza.

«Whether the current U.S. president is deserving of the Nobel Prize, I’m not sure. However, he is genuinely doing significant work to address intricate crises that have persisted for years, if not decades,» the Russian leader remarked.

Furthermore, Putin lambasted the Nobel Committee for granting its peace prize to «individuals who have achieved nothing for peace,» just hours after the committee named Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as the winner of this year’s award.

«In my opinion, these decisions have greatly harmed the prestige of the prize,» Putin stated to reporters. Earlier, Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov had indicated that Moscow would welcome a Nobel Prize victory for Trump.

Regarding the situation in Ukraine, Putin mentioned that Russia and the U.S. «could still achieve much more» based on the agreements he and Trump reached during their summit in Alaska on August 15, which had been presented as a chance to overcome the stalemate in Ukraine peace discussions but resulted in no tangible outcomes.

«We haven’t fully revealed what was talked about in Anchorage. We are still proceeding based on those discussions and haven’t made any alterations on our side,» Putin said, following earlier inconsistent remarks from senior Russian officials concerning whether the “momentum” from those talks had dissipated.

However, the Russian leader also issued a warning to Washington. When asked about reports suggesting that Trump was contemplating the deployment of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, he asserted that Russia would respond by «enhancing its air defense systems,» and criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a «show-off» for threatening to utilize long-range missiles against targets within Russia.

In a show of military strength, Putin announced that Moscow was preparing a new armament for its armed forces, reminiscent of last year’s event when the Kremlin revealed the experimental Oreshnik hypersonic missile.

«I believe we will soon have the chance to unveil a new weapon that we had previously introduced. It is now coming into development and is undergoing testing,» he informed reporters, without providing additional details.