The jailed Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties have won the 2022 Nobel peace prize, writes The Guardian.

“The Norwegian Nobel committee wishes to honour three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence in the neighbour countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine”, the committee chair, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said.

She called on Belarus to release Bialiatski from prison.

The prize will be seen by many as a condemnation of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who is celebrating his 70th birthday on Friday, and Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, making it one of the most politically contentious in decades.

The award was not an anti-Putin prize, however, Reiss-Andersen said. “We always give the prize for something and to something and not against someone”, - she told reporters.

In July last year Belarusian security police raided offices and homes of lawyers and human rights activists, detaining Bialiatski and others in a new crackdown on opponents of Lukashenko.

Authorities had moved to shut down non-state media outlets and human rights groups after mass protests the previous August against a presidential election the opposition said was rigged.

The Nobel peace prize, worth 10m Swedish kronor (£800,000), will be presented in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.