Moscow under Beijing's influence

Not only has China protested against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo, it has also encouraged other countries to boycott the ceremony, online newspaper Ir complains: "The diplomatic efforts of Beijing have not been in vain. The representatives of around 20 states are staying away from the ceremony, most of them more or less undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. ... There is a whole line-up of countries whose ideologies place no stock in human rights and would have banned their ambassadors from attending a ceremony honouring a human rights activist even if China hadn't requested it. But it's particularly significant that Russia's ambassador to Norway won't be among the guests, allegedly because he is on an official trip elsewhere. That is nothing that couldn't have been postponed and the award ceremony takes place on the same day, December 10, every year - the day the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted."

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