In an interview conducted by Stéphane Brussard, Eric Hoesli, expert on Russia, puts two radically different perceptions of the late Yeltsin into perspective. "For westerners, he was the first president of a democratic Russia, the one who brought several freedoms and allowed a return of market forces through a process of liberalisation. For the Russians, however, he is the symbol of the nightmare years, of the collapse of the economy and the cataclysmic collapse of the empire. He is synonymous with national humiliation. ... He was carried by History, which gave him a role that nobody could really have played properly because the upheaval was so great. He was not able to guarantee the transition. At times he followed the movement, at times he sinned through optimism, at times through naivety. With him, Russia was not strong enough to resist the outside world. It lost its international standing and made enormous concessions: concerning NATO enlargement to the east and the Balkans." (24/04/2007)

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The daily ponders how Boris Yeltsin marked Russian history. "Russian citizens seemed to resolutely and warmly welcome the successor designated by Yeltsin himself: Vladimir Putin [1999]. After his arrival, the situation improved in political and economic terms, but evolved following an authoritarian system. Boris Yeltsin's chaotic Kremlin has been taken over by the firm hand of a man who completely identifies with absolute power. It can be said that Yeltsin fulfilled a 'between the reigns' position that was perfectly suitable for a certain time in Russian history, a multi-secular history that seems to have regained its traditional format with Putin: a regimental society, a strong power and a parochial nationalism. But fate should stop weighing down upon Russian society and under no circumstances should it be used to justify diminishing democratic demands made of the Kremlin." (24/04/2007)

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For the Danish newspaper Boris Yeltsin was a "hero of the revolution" and "Russia's saviour." "He was a man between two eras: the totalitarian Soviet Union and the new Russia. Such protagonists of transitional periods are seldom very popular. Their work is often paradoxical, as was the case with Yeltsin. He withdrew the Soviet troops from the Baltic states and Germany, but made a grave mistake in Chechnya. He presented Russia in a way it had never been seen before, but instead of allowing free elections he appointed his own successor. From a historical point of view there can be no doubt about Yeltsin's importance. With the exception of the first war in Chechnya, Yeltsin's political talent and his capacity to take action always paid off at the decisive moment." (24/04/2007)

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Whatever one may say about Boris Yeltsin, he was an important man for Estonia, the newspaper asserts. "When Yeltsin visited Tallinn in 1991, while blood was flowing in Latvia and Lithuania, it was a heroic deed of international dimensions. Yeltsin's visit was a first step towards helping Estonia achieve independence. It was mainly owing to domestic policy issues that his relationship with our country later became more difficult. Estonia has given many awards to heads of state, but it never gave one to Yeltsin. This is incomprehensible and embarrassing. We don't have to make a freedom hero of him, but he was a reliable neighbour." (24/04/2007)

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Yeltsin's term in office from 1991 to 1999 saw the beginnings of democracy, but also of chaos, poverty and predatory capitalism, Gábor Miklós writes in his obituary. "Yeltsin continued with the work initiated by Gorbachev, the reconciliation between East and West. He tried to normalise relations with the former satellite states and apologised in Budapest for the suppression of the 1956 uprising... Once Putin came to power, Yeltsin was forced to watch his successor reverse everything he had done and introduce a strictly authoritarian regime. There can be little talk of freedom of expression and of the press today. Governors are no longer elected and Russia keeps its neighbouring states on a tight reign." (24/04/2007)

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"To do Boris Yeltsin true justice you have to say something about his successor Vladimir Putin," writes Jan Rybar on the death of the former Russian president. "When Putin came to power he became a hero for Russia and the West. He brought stability to the country, the economy stopped collapsing and the brutal plundering of the country by oligarchs with close ties to Yeltsin came to an end. Putin sent new tanks to Chechnya while the Russians backed and applauded his hard line there. But something fundamental disappeared: the freedom of the Yeltsin era. Despite all his mistakes, Yeltsin was convinced that without freedom of speech and opposition parties Russia wouldn't have a chance... Today's Russia is different." (24/04/2007)

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Last Saturday, April 21st, marked the 40th anniversary of the coup d'Etat led by a group of colonels in Greece. Georgios Koumantos, professor of Law, looks back on the seven year dictatorship that ensued. "The many evils sown by the dictatorship have often been mentioned, the gravest among them being the irreparable damage caused to Cyprus. Unintentionally, however, the architects of the coup also did some good by accelerating the course of history: The abolition of monarchy, the introduction of modern Greek, the legalization of all political parties, ... – changes that would have otherwise taken decades. By resorting to violence and torture, a dictatorship excludes itself from the political. For that reason, it does not deserve any tolerance whatsoever. It must be rejected out of hand, without any terms or conditions. It is from this starting point that one must discuss the best way to overturn or undermine it. One tactic can be asserting one's presence in public life with the aim of exhausting whatever narrow space of tolerance is allowed (and which is usually for show)." (23/04/2007)

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"Albania was a nightmare", explains the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare in an interview given in Paris where he sought refuge in 1990. The author evokes life in his country during the communist dictatorship of Envar Hoxha [1945-1985] and his book 'The Eagle' [1995], an allegorical fable that evokes this period during which several tens of thousands of people were killed or persecuted. "The difficulty was in managing to keep on writing by mastering self-censorship ... . The regime knew that I disapproved of it and I knew it knew. It was strange. I was protected by the success of my books abroad, but I was still a prisoner like everyone else ... . During the years of the dictatorship, daily reality consisted in dreaming of escape and the impossibility of escape. 'The Eagle' may resemble a fable, but it evokes the destiny of Albanians that could be summed up as a simple alternative: to fall or not to fall". (24/04/2007)

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The Romanian philosopher Andrei Plesu questions the quality of Romania's parliamentary discussions: "How, when and what do our parliamentarians discuss? We should first talk about those who say nothing. The majority of the elected representatives tend to dose serenely through the sessions, considering it enough just to be there. In this respect it's an extremely pleasant task: they can spend their entire term in office without being noticed by anybody and without a voter being able to learn their opinion. Four years of anonymously putting your hand up when the chairman of the session requires it. One can say without exaggeration that in all the years of its fragile democracy our country has been led by faceless voting robots who wave their hands between naps while the demagogues keep talking." (24/04/2007)

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The French philosopher Yves Michaud considers that the centrist voters whose candidate, François Bayrou, came third in the first round of the presidential elections, will arbitrate the duel of the second round between the right-ring candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and the socialist Ségolène Royal. "Bayrou's 'neither-nor' centrist dynamic does exist, but was unable to break up the bipolar left-right match. Thus it will be Royal against Sarkozy, fair order against success through work, a France of solidarity against a France of competition, regions against the nation. But the bipolarisation we are returning to is not the same anymore. On both sides, on Royal's as much as on Sarkozy's, they are going to have to tap into the reserves and notably into the 'neither-nor' voters. ... This is made more complicated and more serious by the fact that the 'neither-nor' voters may make up a reduced camp, but are also somewhat educated and well-informed." (24/04/2007)

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May 1st 2007 will be the 300th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland. Two days later, regional parliamentary elections will be held in Scotland. The Scottish National Party (SNP) is said to have good chances of winning a majority. George Waser reports: "Alex Salmond, who would be the First Minister in the case of an SNP victory, is already giving himself the airs of an elder statesman. 'Going it alone' is the motto of those who want a break with the Union and dream of a boom similar to that in Ireland. But how realistic is this dream of 'going it alone'?... No doubt the SNP (which having enhanced its strategic skills is now rooting for a referendum in three years' time instead of immediately) would plead in favour of abandoning the union with England, pointing to the oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. But notwithstanding a report which was long kept secret by the British government, according to which the Scottish were always at a disadvantage, it's still uncertain to what extent complete autonomy would give them the rights to these reserves." (24/04/2007)

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"ABN Amro, the Dutch bank that not so long ago was considered one of the uglier ducklings of the banking industry, is not short of suitors. On Monday April 23rd Barclays, a big British bank, agreed to pay €67 billion ($91.2 billion) in a deal that will create Europe's second-largest bank", explains the weekly. "Talks between the two were given fresh impetus last week by the emergence of a trio of rivals, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Santander of Spain and the Dutch-Belgian group, Fortis. They could yet launch a hostile bid which would see the Dutch national champion carved up between them. The outcome could provide the answer to how Europe's other leading banks should proceed as the EU continues to press for a single market in banks and finance. So will better banks result from the creation of ever larger and more diverse conglomerates ? Or should governments and regulators swallow hard and oversee a wholesale demolition of a few of their wards in the hope that something stronger emerges from the rubble ? ABN Amro is a good test." (24/04/2007)

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In this year of cultural profusion in Luxemburg, the 2007 European capital of culture, the chronicler Luc Caregari takes an interest in a website designed to guide visitors. "The website is called artchannel.lu and is the initiative of four individuals - so far on a volunteer basis - from the artistic scene or the media field, seeking to revamp the local cultural landscape. To do this, the artchannel team has decided to put artist's portraits and documentaries made for institutions on line. The website managers have a view that is more practical than artistic. ... This runs the risk of drowning it in the deluge of cultural pamphlets and adverts that has been swamping Luxemburg throughout 2007. Artchannel thus has to prove itself efficient as a form of meta-media for guiding lost consumers through the cultural forest." (20/04/2007)

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The election campaign has started: for the first time ever Bulgaria will elect 18 representatives to the European parliament. Most of the parties that have put up candidates have invited the country's most popular stars of folk music to their election rallies. The battle for votes is being fought to the sound of the hammering bass and trite lyrics praising the homeland. Boyko Lambovski takes a closer look at the pop-folk music machinery: "We shouldn't ask whether the pop-folk music campaign is making the elections look ridiculous. The whole thing could be done very differently... The question is whether the standard-bearers of pop-folk music are not making a mockery of the election of the MEPs. Or could it be that our politicians are well on their way to becoming their own brand of pop folk?" (24/04/2007)

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For years, the subject of rebuilding Berlin's Stadtschloss or City Palace, which was blown up in 1950, has been the subject of vigorous debate. Now the decision has been made to build what is being called the "Humboldt Forum" behind the reconstructed historical façade. Rainer Haubrich is delighted: "Fortunately, the building that will be constructed on the site of the former palace after so many discussions, hearings and designs won't just be the product of a compromise between indecisive committees: it's the right content in the right form. Together with those of the Museum Island, the non-European collections of the state museums on display here will form a unique ensemble of international art - without commercial exploitation in the form of hotels or shopping malls. The palace's baroque exterior will bring back to the face of the city a building that reunites its neighbouring buildings. The new building will thus point back to the past and at the same time point far into the future in these times of global cultural exchange." (24/04/2007)

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Thierry Coljon offers a portrait of the German rock group Tokio Hotel that is experiencing a growing success in Europe. "[Tokio Hotel] has a very particular target audience: preadolescents at an age where looks are everything. And this is where Tokio Hotel excels. Everything rests on the appearance of the lead singer, Bill Kaulitz. He isn't quite 18, but his tattoos, his body piercing, his androgynous make-up and his hair-style straight out of a manga are so intriguing that they work. ... Parents need not worry. The history of pop music is paved with such ephemeral creatures. ... Boy's bands regularly come along to titillate young girls bereft of bearings. .. .The producers, who themselves are very grown-up, have fertile imaginations that never tarry when it comes to throwing new products into the arms of the prepubescent market." (24/04/2007)

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The Romanian writer Ion Vianu is concerned about the future of Bucharest: "Bucharest is choking on itself! If things go on as they are now, the air won't be fit to breathe in five years' time, and the traffic, which is already slower than it was in 1900, will come to a complete halt. The Romanian capital's main arteries were conceived for carriages and trams, not for today's traffic. There is a simple measure to get the traffic moving again: upgrading the city's public transport. The tram network needs to be expanded; there are not enough buses to supplement the trams and subway. Look at the cars that are parked all over the place. It should be forbidden for cars to block pavements. Together with the stray dogs they make the lives of pedestrians unbearable." (24/04/2007)

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