"Putin's strategy was skilfully planned," comments Eric Gujer in his preliminary assessment of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm. "After weeks of threats during which Putin conjured up images of a Russia under threat from the American system and warned of a new Cold War, Moscow is now suggesting that it's willing to talk. In Europe, and more specifically in Germany, many interpret this as a sign that Russia is backing down and urge Washington to meet Moscow halfway. But for America, Putin's proposal is probably less attractive... The defence technology, which is still in development, is far too advanced for the Americans to be happy about sharing it with Russia. Putin's Azerbaijan alternative not only means joint operations, it would also mean they would take place within Russia's sphere of influence. This would practically give Moscow free access to the system." (08/06/2007)

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The journalist Neil Buckley notes that "while trying to split the US and European Union on the missile defence issue, Mr. Putin may have blundered by uniting them instead. Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French leader, and Germany's Angela Merkel are determined to take a tougher line with Mr Putin than their predecessors. That might make him open to a face-saving compromise short of cancelling missile defence. Moving the planned radar station to an existing base in Azerbaijan, as Mr Putin suggested yesterday, could be one way out. Another answer that has been mooted is to locate the interceptor missiles in the UK rather than Poland, a solution US officials call viable if not ideal and say Russia has hinted it might accept. But it is not clear how much ground the Bush administration is prepared to give on a system on which it is heavily committed, and may be determined to present as a fait accompli to the next US president." (08/06/2007)

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"Vladimir Putin surprised us all with a dramatic turn of events at yesterday's G8 summit", explains the daily. "This week the Russian president had shaken up the foreign ministries with his rhetorical threats to bring back the cold war, reacting to the American project to set up an antimissile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. ... For the Russian president, this isn't really so much about eliminating a threat to his country, or preserving Russia's influence over its neighbouring countries, but more about putting Russia back on an equal footing with the United States, Europe and China. What is at stake is therefore not simply the antimissile shield, but also Kosovo's independence and Iran's nuclear programme. Putin wants Russia to bear upon the world's big decisions and is astutely defending his positions." (08/06/2007)

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"Yet again, Moscow has surprised us all," writes Petr Pesek on Vladimir Putin's proposal that the US use a military base in Azerbaijan. He points out that this could jeopardise the plans to set up bases in the Czech Republic and Poland: "Czech advocates of the radar station won't lose face even if the station is not built, and opponents can celebrate without relations with the US suffering. However we're still in the 'what if' phase', because based on what Moscow has proposed up to now it hardly looks like the US will receive the Russians' offer with open arms. And it can't be ruled out that Azerbaijan could simply complement the Czech-Polish project. This is why the opponents of the radar station shouldn't start opening the champagne bottles yet... The missile dispute has only just begun for the Czech Republic." (08/06/2007)

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Otfried Nassauer, director of the Berlin Information Centre for Transatlantic Security (BITS), puts Putin's actions in a strategic context. "Are key decisions about European security to be made with or without Russia in the future? Will the West keep its promise to expand the NATO-Russia council in such a way that Russia and NATO members can jointly make decisions there? Vladimir Putin has sought this controversy without any risk to himself. He will go down in Russian history books as the president who stopped Russia's political and economic decline and restored the country's dignity. With a debate in which the West must decide whether Europe's security should be coordinated with Russia or directed against it, Putin may be able to achieve the same in foreign and security policy. Meanwhile, he is not putting himself at any risk. The decision about whether there will be a new confrontation will be made by the West or by Putin's successor." (08/06/2007)

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"Never has the past mattered more to the present. Never has the hunger for historical justice been more intense. To our ancestors, the idea of holding history to account would have seemed perverse and unrealistic. Today it is a part of defining reality", notes Ben Macintyre, journalist and author of historical nonfiction books. "Britain, despite (or because) of her colonial past, takes a high moral line on such matters [the crimes of history]. … Earlier this year we loudly celebrated the abolition of the slave trade, the largest and cruellest forced migration in human history. The message from our cultural masters is clear: we must apologise for Britain's part in the evictions of the past; we must condemn such actions in the present, and if necessary (and convenient) go to war over them, as in Kosovo." (08/06/2007)

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Mariam Lau expresses her views in the dispute about mosques in Germany and reminds critics such as Necla Kelek and Ralph Giordano that religious freedom cannot be dependent on concessions or moods. "If religious freedom in Germany is tied up with aesthetic criteria or other requirements in different areas, for instance integration, it is a lost cause. If the argument prevails that mosques are not good places because men and women pray separately there, tomorrow it will be used against orthodox synagogues, where this is also the case... The general attack against Islam needs to clarify the following inconsistency: on the one hand Muslims are being told that unless they accept the separation of state and religion, Islam will never be compatible with democracy - which is true. But on the other hand Islam is being held responsible for everything: the bad school reports, the 'honour killings' and violence against women, the jobless youths. Mosques should prove themselves in these issues before they are allowed to be built." (08/06/2007)

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Peter Zerjavic comments on the climate deal reached among heads of state and government at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm. Under the deal, participants are to "strongly consider" cutting down greenhouse gas emissions by 50 % by 2050. Zerjavic points out that Angela Merkel doesn't deserve all the credit for the agreement. "The debate about measures to prevent an imminent climate catastrophe was an example of the growing influence of the general public on G8 decisions... G8 host Angela Merkel looked pleased with herself in the afternoon sun at Heiligendamm. After all, she's managed to push through a compromise to which all sides could agree. However, when the time comes for countries to start setting specific limits, the situation will be much more complicated than when it's simply about making a political declaration of intent." (08/06/2007)

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On the eve of legislative elections to be held in Belgium on Sunday, June 10th, the editorialist Martine Vandemeulebrouke reminds us that "The French-speaking far-right is above all an unpredictable beast which demands vigilance, because it can wake up when least expected. Has its potential to harm been underestimated in this electoral campaign? Everything is going on as if it didn't count, or hardly counts, anyway. The up side is that even in the Flanders region, we haven't seen democratic parties play the Sarkozy strategy of fishing in muddy waters. There have been no, or few, little quips about immigration, and security. But if the voters have managed to understand what is at stake with employment, the environment and justice it is mostly thanks to the media. Because otherwise, everything has been focused on people, on candidates, as if they were horses to be bet upon. ... So, it will be a pleasant surprise if the far-right is brushed aside on Sunday." (08/06/2007)

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As a large right-wing victory is predicted for the French legislative elections, the first round of which will be this Sunday, June 10th, the editorialist Françoise Fressoz considers that "if the executive can suffer from too narrow a majority, it is never happy with too large a majority. For, the bigger number of elected representatives there are, the bigger the potential is for frustrated people. For each faithful follower rewarded with a key post (presidents and chairpersons of the Assembly, of groups, of commissions), how many disappointed people are left ruminating and sometimes even conspiring? ... But most difficult in the case of a strong majority, is maintaining ideological control over the troops. The more a camp wins the more arrogant it becomes, the less apt to understand that a president is the representative of all French people and not just a majority. ... Sound advice for the president would thus be, alright for a majority, but above all not too big!" (08/06/2007)

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Nineteen former directors of Swissair, the airline which was closed down in 2001 due to ruinous management, were acquitted on June 7th by the Swiss justice system when judged for their role in the bankruptcy. They were also granted compensation for 'moral injury'. Elizabeth Eckert considers that, "yesterday's verdict in the Swissair debacle dealt one last blow to Swiss citizens. They are stunned, disgusted, only able to note one thing: contrary to the United States where the justice system includes a strong moral notion of economic affairs, inflicting sentences of up to 20 or 30 years on the directors of Enron and Worldcom who did no worse than those of Swissair, the Swiss judicial system is formidably indecent, absolving the major masters of the financial game without the least hesitation." (08/06/2007)

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The European Football Cup in 2012 will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine. But hopes that this decision would prompt construction of roads and stadiums have already evaporated, writes Adam Grzeszczak regretfully. "Now that the euphoria is receding, people are beginning to see that we're extremely ill-prepared, from a legal point of view as well as from an organisational and financial point of view... There are many theories to explain the miserable state of Poland's infrastructure, beginning with a historical theory that points to the impact of the communist era and even further back in time... There's also the psychological theory that blames our national character: Our individualism and fondness of doing things at the last moment instead of making a continuous and persevering effort... If under the pressure of the approaching European Cup we manage to break this vicious circle which Prime Minister Kaczynski calls an 'impossibilism' it will be the greatest football success in Polish history." (09/06/2007)

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"112 contemporary art biennales now exist in the world. The multiplication is exponential, testifying to the rampant globalisation of contemporary art. In June, the action is centred in Europe, with Venice, Kassel and Münster. But now the phenomenon has spread across the planet", notes Emmanuelle Lequeux. "Lyon, Berlin, Istanbul, Moscow, Sharjah, Turin, Shanghai, Havana, Sidney, Dakar, Taipei, and even Ushuaia... One loses count of the towns and cities that now host these mega exhibitions and the phenomenon appears to be expanding at a steady pace, especially in Asia... ... The stakes? They go far beyond aesthetics, becoming political, geo-strategic, and economic. If towns are so enchanted by biennales, it is because they do wonders for their image. ... Showing that a town is part of the international game is an important mission for a biennale. Like the English, contemporary art has become a universal language." (08/06/2007)

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"Museums all over the world have begun to collect art from Eastern Europe. If we want to see Romanian art we'll soon have to travel to Paris or London. It's only in these cities that the true value of works of art from Eastern Europe is appreciated. We must try to change this," Joanna Mytkowska, director of the newly founded Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, explains in an interview with Dorota Jarecka. She wants to make this contemporary art the focal point of the museum's collection. "If art from Eastern Europe is the focus of the Warsaw museum's collection, this is testimony to its uniqueness and appeal. Until now only non-governmental institutions have taken the region's art seriously; it is being buoyed up from below by artists, curators and critics... Great Eastern European artists are still waiting to be discovered." (08/06/2007)

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The Sicilian writer Andrea Camilleri is appealing for a campaign to save the 'Val de Noto', in the south of Sicily, a region with eight towns that are known for their baroque architecture. An American company, Panther Eureka, has been given permission to seek out hydrocarbon beneath the ground of the valley. "How would the Milanese feel if they were told that there were an advanced project to hunt for petrol just in front of the Duomo? And the Venetians, if they were told that St Marc's Square were about to be dug up? Would Florentines accept a drilling machine in the Santa Croce church? How about the inhabitants of Rome, Verona, Lake Garda ? Wouldn't they be most deeply offended? And yet this is what is happening to Sicily, in Val Di Noto, despite the fact that the zone has been declared world heritage by UNESCO. ... This means the total destruction, in one fell swoop, of landscape and history, culture and identity, beauty and harmony, basically the best things we have." (07/06/2007)

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