A curious footnote to the blocking of Arnold's Fields Medal by Pontryagin
(if that is what it was) is the comment Arnold made following the award of
medals to three French mathematicians (mainly for work in PDE) in 1994:

>Unlike the Nobel Prizes, the Fields Medals pass by many of the truly outstanding
people, and in particular Russians. To give three medals at once to
representatives of the French mathematical school, and all three of them
noted for the art of manipulation of inequalities, is hardly a help to the
international prestige of French mathematics [...]

This is part of an article Arnold wrote in the *Mathematical Intelligencer* in
September 1995. It may be read [here][1] if you have the appropriate
institutional affiliation.

[1]:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03024363 "Arnold, V.I. Opinion. The Mathematical Intelligencer 17, 6–10 (1995)"