Doku Zavgaev: Our prize will be awarded for the prevention of World War III and nuclear catastrophe

The Director of the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize Foundation, Doku Zavgaev, answers the questions of the "RG".

- Doku Gapurovich, the first ceremony of awarding the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize took place last year. Briefly please remind us about this award.

- This new public award was established in 2022 by the Russian Historical Society, the Russian Peace Foundation and the Russian Military Historical Society in order to promote peace and international cooperation.
The prize is awarded annually, and the decision to determine the winner is made by an international jury. It consists of Russian and foreign citizens who are known for their contributions to the consolidation of peace and the development of interaction between peoples. These are public and political figures, representatives of cultural, scientific and business circles from different countries and different continents, who have high moral authority at home and abroad.
The jury is headed by V.A. Gergiev, our renowned conductor, widely known as the organizer of high-profile peacekeeping actions in our country and abroad.

- And who was awarded the prize by the jury last year?

- The African Union, an international organization uniting more than 50 countries, became the first recipient of the Peace Prize. She recently celebrated her 60th birthday. The predecessor of the African Union, the Organization of African Unity, was established on May 25, 1963, and this date has been celebrated annually throughout the world since then as Africa Day.
I think many people remember the vivid ceremony of the first Peace Prize. On September 9, 2024, on Leo Tolstoy's birthday, an African delegation headed by the Chairman of the African Union Commission received the laureate's diploma and a personalized gold medal at the Bolshoi Theater with a full house. This large-scale event was broadcast by Channel One and received many positive responses in our country, on the African continent, and in the world as a whole.

- Today, many awards are presented in different countries of the world. What was the reason for the idea of establishing a new Peace Prize?

- The current state of international relations shows that the world, unfortunately, is very fragile. I am sure that today no one doubts the urgent need to step up the process of consolidating the international community in order to preserve peace, because the very existence of humanity depends on it.
It is very important that this seemingly "obvious" topic be the focus of public discourse in different countries.
Naturally, the initiative to create a new public award that meets the spirit of the times and is designed for a long-term perspective was born in Russia. As stated in the Concept of our country's Foreign Policy approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia, taking into account its decisive contribution to the victory in World War II and its active role in creating a modern system of international relations, has always acted and continues to act as one of sovereign centers of global development. It fulfills a historically unique mission to maintain the global balance of power and build a multipolar international system, ensuring conditions for the peaceful, progressive development of mankind based on a unifying and constructive agenda.
The need to implement this initiative is also caused by the fact that our strategic opponents have recently been abusing the interpretation of what is "peace consolidation" in an Orwellian style. With lofty and correct words, they cover up their clearly militaristic and neo-colonialist, and sometimes openly misanthropic aspirations, disorienting the public in different countries. Their use of double, triple and other multiple standards often undermines the work of a number of previously established mechanisms to support peacekeeping and human rights activities.

- In which categories is the award planned?

- While developing the Statute of the Peace Prize, honing the formulations of the main award nominations (I will focus only on some of them), its founders emphasized those ideas and practical efforts that they consider the most relevant and in demand in the modern world.
We took into account the vast historical experience accumulated by our country, its contribution to the formation of the foundations of international humanitarian law (for example, the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1909) and, of course, its huge role in creating a system of international relations after World War II, which ensured many decades of peace on the European continent.
It has always been difficult to achieve significant results in this field. Take, for example, the restoration of international relations after the bloodiest conflict of the 20th century. Moving along this path, of course, required outstanding politicians with strong-willed qualities and a deep understanding of the national interests of their peoples.
I will give just a few examples. When the first chancellor of the newly created Federal Republic of Germany, Karl Adenauer, visited the Soviet Union in 1955, neither he nor, on the other hand, his Soviet interlocutors, N.S. Khrushchev and N.N. Bulganin, could be suspected of sympathizing with each other. Negotiations on building the foundations of what was later called "peaceful coexistence", as you know, went on for quite a long time and very difficult, but thanks to a pragmatic approach, they ended with important decisions for both sides - the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Germany, and the establishment of economic cooperation.
The mutual desire of the parties for a constructive result lay at the heart of the success of Brandt's "new Eastern policy", which became part of the general trend towards defusing international tensions in the 1970s.
Unfortunately, the situation is different today. The degradation of international relations, international institutions, and methods of conducting diplomatic dialogue initiated by the West is increasing. We are witnessing the deliberate destruction of international law. Our Western opponents allow themselves to abandon the international treaties on which the post-war architecture of European and international security is based, openly admit that they deliberately did not fulfill their obligations - both verbally, like the promise that "NATO will not expand an inch to the East," and in writing, such as The Minsk agreements, without any hesitation, declare that the interests of their countries and the needs of their constituents are not important to them.
The award's Statute also specifies more applied criteria, for example, "for significant contribution to solving global problems."
That is why the Statute of the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize, which states the criteria for awarding the award, opens with the phrase "for merits in activities aimed at countering the outbreak of World War III, preventing a nuclear catastrophe, and ensuring universal and equal security based on the supremacy of international law." Efforts to prevent the development of the situation in the world along a catastrophic path are an urgent necessity of our time.
It is becoming more and more obvious every day that we are living in a critical era. The old model of world development is inevitably disappearing into the past, which must be prevented by all means from uncontrolled breakdown, which is dangerous for humanity. At the same time, the formation of a new multipolar world order continues. Sovereignty is being strengthened, and the competitive opportunities of non-Western world powers and regional leading states are increasing. The development potential is being redistributed in favor of new centers of economic growth and geopolitical influence.
The nomination for the Leo Tolstoy Peace Prize "for his contribution to building a multipolar and nonviolent world" is intended to draw attention to this pivotal trend of our time.
Finally, the protection of human rights and freedoms deserves a special approach today. Unfortunately, this serious, necessary and always sought-after direction by society today is clogged with destructive Western neoliberal ideological "attitudes" that have already become more entrenched and are increasingly moving away from traditional spiritual and moral values and openly contradict them, when various perversions are proclaimed "freedoms", including the imposition of ideas about gender reassignment on children, and the activities of many The so-called "human rights activists" are becoming more frequent - alas! - causes any normal person, to put it mildly, "deep perplexity."
Today, it is extremely important to formulate a non-Western understanding of these issues for the widest international audience today. The "degeneration" of human rights activities in the West in recent decades makes it even more urgent to create a new public award to encourage constructive work in the human rights field.
The award's Statute also specifies more applied criteria, for example, "for significant contribution to solving global problems."

- Who can become a Peace Prize winner?

- According to the charter documents, applicants and, accordingly, prize winners can be individuals, initiative groups, national and international public foundations, organizations and movements; scientific and research centers, institutes and institutions, educational institutions. It was very important for us to open up the possibility of receiving this prestigious award to all those who actually devote themselves to a high peacekeeping mission, promote friendship and mutual understanding between peoples, and implement significant initiatives in the field of culture and historical education. History knows many examples when artistic works, scientific achievements, and educational programs have made a significant contribution to the progressive movement of mankind along the path of constructive social development.

- The Leo Tolstoy Peace Prize is probably interacting with partners to unlock its potential...

- That's right. We pay constant attention to expanding our connections with like-minded people. We hope that this publication will serve this purpose.
We expect and will be glad to involve leading Russian scientific institutes and organizations, universities, and specialized associations with their powerful intellectual potential in a meaningful discussion and popularization of the ideas underlying the Peace Prize. I think it would be very important for our leading experts - international political scientists, historians, and diplomats - to come out with their experiences on the subject of the Peace Prize. The relevant questions are what is peacekeeping at the present stage, the analysis of victories and defeats in the history of peacekeeping movements, the lessons of campaigns in defense of human rights and civil liberties. It is interesting to see what could help bring people from different countries together these days in order to achieve the goals that are vital to all of humanity - preserving life on Earth and reducing dangerous international tensions.
This year, when we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, and the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Tribunal, great opportunities for a thorough understanding of these topics are opening up more than ever before. I would like to emphasize the connection between the preservation of historical truth, an urgent task for all of us, and the strengthening of peace and mutual understanding between peoples.
The incessant malicious attempts to falsify the history of the Second World War, glorify Nazism, whitewash or conceal its crimes, not to mention acts of blatant vandalism - the demolition of monuments to Soviet liberation soldiers, desecration of their graves, which we unfortunately observe in some European countries - is a very serious factor in the destruction of mutual understanding between peoples, leading to to the general degradation of international relations.
It is very important to keep in focus the importance of work to counter these extremely dangerous phenomena, including in the context of efforts to restore and deepen trust between peoples.
Such diverse and tireless tasks are set for all of us by promoting the ideas underlying the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize, promoting practical steps aimed at maintaining peace and security on the planet, protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens, and shaping a new, more just multipolar world order based on the principles of sovereign equality and respect for each other's legitimate interests, and the rule of international law.