On Tuesday, Russian veteran human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva said she is happy to beincluded to the list of the nominees for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

      "I cannot say that I deserve this award. There are so many countries with a much worse human rights situation. For example, rights activists in Iran or Afghanistan pay with their lives for this work. But I'm still very happy to on the list of these 200 nominees,” Alekseyeva said.

      Alekseyeva, 85, said she was nominated for the Peace Prize by US Senator Ben Cardin, co-chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. She has never met him in person, but the Moscow Helsinki Group, which Alekseyeva has headed since 1996, has been cooperating with the US commission for 37 years.

      Other Peace Prize nominees include the 15-year old Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by Taliban militants last October for her activism, Belarusian human rights activist Aleksey Belyatski, who is in jail, and two Vietnamese religious leaders, Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly and Thich Quang Do.

      Thó winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in October 2013.