Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by an advocacy group for his efforts to prevent an attack on Syria.
Putin was nominated by the International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World.
During a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, members of the group said Putin was far more deserving of the peace prize than U.S. President Barack Obama, who received it in 2009.
The group said while Obama had continued to lead American military operations abroad, Putin has consistently opposed military intervention throughout the two-and-a-half year Syrian civil war, which was left more than 115,000 dead according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Putin, a former KGB agent, is credited with commanding a war against separatists in Chechnya and approving a full-scale attack on Georgia over a minor border dispute.
The 2013 Peace Prize recipient will be announced in Oslo on Oct. 11; nominations for this year鈥檚 prize had to be postmarked by Feb. 1.
