MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier on Saturday, the NRK broadcaster reported that the head of Norway Nobel Prize Committee, Olav Njolstad, accused the Russian diplomats of trying to influence the Nobel Committee when they visited him in 2015.
"Nonsense. Pure nonsense. That is a witch hunt in the most disgraceful manner," Kosachev told Sputnik, referring to the reports.
The Russian diplomats were be not able to influence the nomination because the list of the Nobel Prize nominees is disclosed only 50 years later, Kosachev stressed.
The accusations also have no basis because Petro Poroshenko is not eligible to be nominated due to his failure in ending the military conflict in Donbass, Kosachev underlined later on his Facebook page.
The Nobel Committee head said that he suspected that the visit of the Russian diplomats was an attempt to influence the Nobel Committee and contacted the national security services. According to Arne Christian Haugstoyl, the chief of the counterintelligence unit, the Russian diplomats used the media reports in order to discredit the potential nominee.
The Russian embassy said that such visits were a routine diplomatic work, while the attempts to present it as the Russian intelligence activities were "paranoiac."
