Opposition leader nominated for arms control award

December 13, Pozirk. The Arms Control Association, a US-based NGO promoting public awareness for effective arms control policies, nominated Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja for its annual award.

The nomination is linked to her “steadfast opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus as a dangerous escalation of nuclear brinkmanship and a violation of the country’s nuclear-free status.”

The 2023 Arms Control Person(s) of the Year nominees also include Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Italian diplomat Leonardo Bencini, film director Christopher Nolan and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s mission that monitored safety procedures at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

The award distinguishes individuals or institutions that “advanced effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament solutions and raised awareness of the threats posed by mass casualty weapons.”

This year’s winner will be announced on January 12, after completion of the voting that started on December 8.

Ukraine’s Energoatom staff at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant won the award last year, while Setsuko Thurlow and victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki received it in 2015.