MOSCOW – A patriotic Russian group on Tuesday called for President Vladimir Putin to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his Syria diplomacy, claiming he was more deserving of the award than laureate U.S. President Barack Obama.

A group that lists senior Russian officials among its members announced at a news conference that it had written to the Nobel Prize committee backing Putin for the award that Obama received in 2009.

The group says Putin deserves the honor or his efforts in brokering an agreement for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons under international control, a plan the group says helped avert a “new world war.”