Russian President Vladimir Putin said Donald Trump is “doing a lot” for world peace, and hit out at the Nobel committee after it declined to award its top prize to the American leader.

The Norwegian body gave its famed peace prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Friday in a snub to Trump, who has openly and vociferously campaigned for the accolade.

The announcement drew a rebuke from Putin, who defended his U.S. counterpart and told reporters Friday during a visit to Tajikistan that the committee’s “credibility has largely been lost.” 

“There’ve been cases when the Nobel committee awarded the prize to people who’ve done nothing for peace,” Putin said, without naming names. “That’s damaged the prize’s prestige.” 

While he demurred when asked whether he felt Trump deserved the prize, the Russian president — who is currently waging a bloody, years-long war in Ukraine and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes — said Trump “is really doing a lot to solve crises that have lasted years, in some cases decades.” 

Trump “sincerely is aiming for peace” in Ukraine, Putin said, adding “the most striking example” of his peacemaking credentials “is the situation in the Middle East.”

The American president announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have “signed off on the first phase” of a deal to end the war in Gaza, and Israel declared Friday that a ceasefire had taken effect in the besieged enclave.

It is one of numerous conflicts Trump has claimed to have brokered an end to in his second term in office — though The Associated Press has fact-checked much of this assertion as false.

“If Donald succeeds in accomplishing everything he’s aiming for, everything he’s talked about and trying to do, it will be a historic moment,” the Russian president gushed.

Machado, a fierce critic of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime, has lived in hiding in Venezuela for the last year and “has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights, and popular representation,” Nobel Committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said Friday as he announced she had received the award.

Four U.S. presidents and one vice president have won the peace prize, including former Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt; and former Vice President Al Gore.

Eva Hartog contributed to this report.