Vladimir Putin believes Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize for his contributions

Putin’s unprecedented defence of Sepp Blatter continues

In a recent interview with Swiss broadcaster RTS that was released on Monday, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Sepp Blatter, who recently resigned as the President of FIFA amid corruption charges, did no wrong and instead deserves a Nobel Prize. Putin’s statement comes after British comedian Simon Brodkin threw currency notes at Blatter last week.

"I think that people like Blatter, the outstanding heads of international athletic federations and Olympic committees like him, deserve special recognition and gratitude, we are all aware of the situation that surrounds Blatter" he said, while speaking to the channel RTS.

"If there is anyone who deserves Nobel Prizes, it is those people. It is these people who "perfect mechanisms of cooperation between countries and make a huge humanitarian contribution to the development of good-neighbourly relations between people and states," Putin further told the Swiss broadcaster.

"I do not want to go too much into detail, but I personally do not believe a single word with regard to [allegations] of corruption facing him, the way the fight against corruption is playing out causes me to wonder whether this is a continuation of the battle for 2018 and 2022," he continued, during his interview with RTS.

Questions U.S’s legitimacy in investigating the FIFA scandal

"No one is opposed to the fight against corruption. Everyone is for it. But there are norms of international law. And if anyone is suspected of committing a crime, the required evidence is collected and transferred to the Prosecutor's Office of the state whose citizenship this person holds. No one, not a single country - either big or small - can move around the world and capture whoever they want and drag them into their prisons. For me it’s unacceptable" Putin added while speaking to RTS.

Previously the President had said, "The USA definitely (has) nothing to do with this," the Russian President said of FIFA, which is based in Switzerland. "This is yet another obvious attempt to spread their jurisdiction to other (countries)" as quoted by CNN.

The Russian government has imposed several cut-backs on the World Cup preparations, but Putin insists that everything will go on smoothly as planned and Russia will successfully host the 2018 Championships. Earlier too, Putin had defended Blatter, who had headed Football’s governing body for 17 years and had said that the tarnishment of Sepp Blatter’s image will have no effect on Russia’s 2018 World Cup preparations.

Blatter had announced in June that he shall step down after the considerable pressure from world media mounted on him asking for his resignation from the post.