The ceremony on Dec. 10 will be missing its honoree, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is under house arrest in China. Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco, and Iraq have all declined invitations. They haven't said why, but Nobel committee members suspect they've been swayed by China, which is urging other nations to join its boycott of the Oslo ceremony.
Surprise! 
And so it goes...
Richard 
Russia
Moscow maintains that Chinese pressure isn't keeping it from going to Oslo next month. What's the reason then? It won't say.
But there is plenty of cause for Russia to appease China. Its abundance of energy resources and China's growing need for energy has led to strong economic ties between the two countries. Those ties are likely only to strengthen. Russia is hoping for further Chinese investment in energy and China wants to secure access to oil and gas in Russia, Reuters reports.
What's more, Russia isn't known as a great champion of human rights. The organization Freedom House, which monitors human rights around the world, characterized Russia as "not free" because of its alleged electoral abuses, growing state censorship, greater police corruption, and repeated intimidation of human rights activists and journalists. The executive branch has a strong hold on the media, civil society and other branches of government.
Kazakhstan
The
China-Kazakhstan relationship is one built on energy supply and demand. The China-Kazakhstan oil pipeline is the first one to directly connect China to Central Asia's energy resources and a gas pipeline between the two is also already in the works. Many Chinese oil companies have stakes in Kazakh oil production companies, the China Daily News reports.
Kazakhstan is also classified as "not free" by Freedom House. In 2009, the organization pointed to a slew of libel suits against opposition media organizations, a new Internet law that curtailed activity, unexplained arrests of businessmen and officials, and judicial action taken against a well-known human rights activist. Politics are almost completely controlled by the president and his ruling party.
Cuba
The two communist countries have pretty cozy relations. In April 2010, a Cuban government official was quoted by The People's Daily saying,
"Bilateral ties with China are so important that every sector in the Cuban economy now has a Chinese presence." The two have also established joint ventures in public health and other sectors. A 2009 McClatchy article says China is Cuba's second-largest investor, after Venezuela, and it expects Cuba's support on contentious political issues such as Taiwan and Tibet.
Cuba is not far from the bottom of the Freedom House rankings, although the organization has cited some improvements in Cuba such as more mild forms of repression (harassment and short-term detention instead of long jail sentences). The country still has a one-party political system that controls just about every aspect of life in the country.
Morocco
Morocco was the second country on the African continent to establish diplomatic ties with China. More than 50 years later, the two remain friendly. China has shown support for Morocco on the touchy issue of disputed territory in the Western Sahara.
Morocco is the only country boycotting the Peace Prize event that doesn't fall into Freedom House's "not free" category. But the organization says freedom is on the decline because of an increasing concentration of power in the hands of elites tied to the monarchy. The media also face censorship.
Iraq
China was one of the first countries to invest in Iraq after the US invasion, buying into its oil industry and areas such as construction and tourism, the Washington Post reports.
China holds investments in 3 of 11 contracts the Iraqi Oil Ministry signed.
Iraq is the only country that has confirmed it's not going to Oslo which Freedom House says is making improvements in political rights and civil liberties. That's largely on the basis of provincial elections held in January 2009 and increased autonomy as US troops began to withdrawal. Those improvements were tempered by sectarian killings, however. Recent targeting of Iraqi Christians happened too recently to be factored into this report, but may negate Iraq's upward trend in Freedom House rankings.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Globa...s-won-t/Russia
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