Following Russia's massive interventions in the Caucasus in 2008 the West froze its relations with Moscow. But it was clear to all that this state of affairs wouldn't last forever, the business paper Hospodářské Noviny writes, commenting on the visit of Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Moscow: "The main reason for this has a name: Afghanistan. The West has manoeuvred itself into a position in which it needs all the help it can get. And Moscow has its own experiences with radical Islamists. … What does this mean in real terms: Russia will discretely open up further channels to Afghanistan; perhaps it will supply the Afghan army and police with weapons. However it will make sure it is paid for this - with money from the West. But for Moscow to open the tap even further the West must offer it something. Something it doesn't want to give: it would have to close the door to Nato for countries within Moscow's sphere of influence." (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Adam Černý

Russia will be of little assistance to Nato in Afghanistan and the requests of the Nato Secretary General in Moscow are therefore in vain, writes the left-liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung: "Anders Fogh Rasmussen ... might just as well have asked Father Christmas for help. Not that Moscow would question the wisdom of military aid. There are a couple of battle-scarred Afghanistan generals out there who still believe that where the Soviet Union failed no one can win. But the political leadership is aware how fatal Nato failure in its close neighbour Afghanistan could be. Nonetheless, this doesn't mean Moscow will shower Brussels with good deeds. The Georgia war which brought Nato and Russia to the brink of a military clash has not been forgotten. Russia's plan for a new European security framework is testimony to this. It would paralyse Nato or make it redundant if the latter were to join."  (17/12/2009)

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Thirty years after the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan the Russian army may now return to Kabul, writes the left-liberal daily La Repubblica on Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Moscow visit: "The request of the Nato Secretary General was well received, and even has the approval of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. ... The idea is based on cooperation between Nato and the new Collective Security Treaty organisation to which seven countries which were part of the former Soviet Union belong. … The assessment on the part of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was on the whole positive, despite minor differences of opinion, but that's no doubt one of the rules in the Russian 'tandemocracy'. In plain English their message is: 'We are in the process of reaching an agreement [with Nato]." (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Leonardo Coen

The emerging states' knee-jerk tendency to see themselves as aid recipients and victims is a major obstacle to the success of the climate talks in Copenhagen, the daily Dagens Nyheter comments: "The old division of the world into developing and industrialised nations is no longer valid. Which category does India fit into? Or China? … Among the countries designated as developing nations attending the environmental summit is the G77 group: a network founded in 1964 by the UN which originally consisted of 77 countries. Although the world has become a better place since then and we have a new and stable middle class in former poor countries, that group has expanded to encompass 130 countries - including states like India, Brazil, China and oil-rich Kuwait. ... It's evident that these countries see themselves as objects that require compensation rather than as subjects that can act for themselves in the future. This doesn't help the climate."  (17/12/2009)

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Two Austrian right-wing populist parties, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the strong Carinthian arm of the party once led by Jörg Haider, the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), have joined forces. This could be dangerous for the moderate parties, the daily Die Presse writes: "Because the strategy of Heinz-Christian Strache [FPÖ] und Uwe Scheuch [BZÖ] is clear and rather clever: the FPÖ garners the nationwide votes of the BZÖ and meanwhile the BZÖ members from the Austrian province of Carinthia need no longer fear competition from within their own camp. By reason of his feudal views Scheuch has no interests in federal politics, while Strache gets the National Assembly mandate for Carinthia for free. The concept is called 'onwards into the past': not only ideologically but above all strategically. The other parties, in particular the SPÖ, will have to get their act together if they want to prevent the 'new' FPÖ from becoming number two in the country like in 1999." (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Michael Fleischhacker

Portugal's cabinet will pass a bill legalising same-sex marriages today. The daily Diário de Notícias expects a major debate: "Since the government has sensed that this issue could spark a religious war it has prepared the bill with the utmost care. What is clear is: adoption will still not be possible because society is still not ready for this social 'progress' (according to the [ruling] socialists). This is a sign that the government doesn't want to change the world in a day. ... However you look at it, the topic is now a public one, and it will certainly be the subject of many debates, in parliament, on television, in the church, in the homes of all citizens. It is to be hoped that it will proceed intelligently, no matter what its result. And also that it will not overshadow other debates in which the country needs to engage." (17/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Minorities, » Social affairs, » Portugal

Riga's deputy mayor Ainārs Šlesers will host a summit for mayors from European countries and CIS states next July which coincides with the Russian pop festival Jaunais vilnis at the city's seaside resort of Jūrmala. The online newspaper Cita Diena finds this very un-Latvian: "Between 100 and 150 mayors from major cities all over Europe and Asia plan to attend. There will be more than 1,000 visitors and the city council is spending millions so that they get an impression of Latvia by seeing Jaunais vilnis. As we all know tastes differ, but there's no denying the fact that Jaunais vilnis is clearly not a Latvian event. … So the idea of holding an international event at the same time as Jaunais vilnis must be motivated by the desire to make the guests forget that they're in Latvia and that such a country even exists. If the organisers are really interested in boosting Latvia's image they should strive to convey to visitors the impression that they are in Latvia, where Latvians live with their own language and culture."   (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Laila Pakalnina

The proposal by the right-wing extremist party Ataka for a referendum on stopping the Turkish-language television news broadcasts may be supported by the governing Gerb party. Ivan Bedrov reminds referendum supporters in his blog of two Swiss plebiscites: "Today we ban news in Turkish, tomorrow minarets, the day after belly dancing. Because we don't like them. And because that's what they did in Switzerland. But let's not forget, a good number of Swiss wanted to stop Bulgarians and Romanians from working in their country. True, this referendum was not successful, but the campaign was no more civilised than that on minarets: The most popular image showed two crows - Bulgarian and Romanian - ripping Switzerland apart." (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Ivan Bedrov

Yesterday marked the twentieth anniversary of the first rebellion against the Ceauşescu regime in the city of Timişoara, which was then followed by many more. More than one thousand people were killed when the Ceauşescu dictatorship fell, but to this day the events have not been properly clarified. Vlad Stoicescu expresses his disappointment in the daily Evinimentul Zilei: "The current celebrations are nothing but a facade. Today, as always, such half-hearted festivities will swallow up the truncated memories of this revolution which we view with extreme emotion and extreme resignation. Because in the past two decades nothing fundamental has changed, although we should by now have banished the demons and communist reflexes. Society today is as forgetful as it has always been, we live in the same body politic eaten away by dictatorship, we suffer from the same terrible ignorance. ... The heroes of 1989 need no wreaths or candles. Their families will take care of that, because pain doesn't go away because of press freedom, or US comedy series, or even full supermarkets or feedom. What the eyewitnesses of 1989 need is the truth. And one thing is clear, they're now too old to take to the streets to demand it." (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Vlad Stoicescu

In view of the global crisis former Hungarian President Ferenc Mádl calls in the conservative intellectual weekly Nagyítás on people to focus once more on Christian values: "In the past decades we witnessed a slow erosion of traditional European values. ... The breeding ground of this moral decline is consumer society, or in other words affluent society - where morals play only a minor role. Western civilisation as a whole has plunged into a crisis, whereby it is less economic misery that worries people than the fact that within a short period of time an unsustainable social system has emerged. … The general decline affects not only individuals and communities but also politics, culture and the economy. … It is high time for change. I believe that reviving those Christian principles that worked well for two thousand years would be a solution to our civilisation's problems. … The principles enshrined in the Ten Commands and the Europe's traditional moral values would be a good way to get our world back on track."   (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Ferenc Mádl

The economic reformer and former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar died Wednesday aged 53. The magazine The Economist praises his spirit of reform: "His most momentous decision was to liberalise all prices on New Year's Day 1992. It was astonishingly risky. A generation's savings would be rendered visibly worthless (though their real value had been destroyed by the demonetisation of the economy in the late Soviet era). ... In the first week of January, Mr Gaidar and his tiny team of reformers watched with increasing exuberance as impromptu street markets multiplied in Russia's towns and cities. Instead of hoarding consumer goods and raw materials, people started trying to sell them. In his few months in power, Mr Gaidar and his team demolished the Soviet economy and laid the foundations of capitalism in Russia." (16/12/2009)

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Greece's creditworthiness continued to sink yesterday when the leading agency Standart & Poor's (S&P) lowered their rating after a similar move by Fitch, on the grounds that measures undertaken by the Greek government are insufficient. The left-liberal daily To Vima disagrees with the decision: "The rating agencies would like to see the government freeze or sink wages. They call this an appropriate measure, without even considering the peculiarities of the Greek economy. Dogmatic as they are, they defend their belief like theologians and refuse to be at all flexible. ... But Greece is not what they think it is. The country has a huge supply of untaxed property, which could supply a large source of tax revenue. In addition the state is also immeasurably rich. ... The president of Piraeus Bank, Michalis Sallas, wrote last Sunday that the public sector is sitting on 240 billion euros worth of real estate. Taking account of this, S&P's demands are clearly met. All Greece needs is time." (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Antonis Karakousis

Poland has cancelled its contract with the Austrian company Alpine Bau for part of a motorway leading to the Czech Republic because it failed to honour construction schedules. This will have dire consequences for Polish drivers, warns the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza: "It may be that history will have to decide whether this was the correct choice. ... But with or without a court decision, Polish drivers have already lost. The short section of motorway leading to the Czech border will now open around two years later than planned, in April 2012. Did the ministry of transport not know of these catastrophic delays just a month ago when it was busy patting itself on the shoulder for its successes? And are the construction deadlines for further motorways at all realistic?" (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Andrzej Kublik

Director James Cameron's new film Avatar is the most expensive film ever, having cost around 350 million euros to make. The daily La Tribune stresses how innovation can propel growth: "In Hollywood, which should have been hard hit by the crisis, this certainty is pretty much anchored in people's genes. The most expensive film in history is coming to cinemas at a time when many films are struggling to get together their budgets and studios are hesitant to change their strategy regarding the Internet. That's amazing. But actually it's not. It's just the opportunism and quick reactions of economic players whose only goal is to seduce as many customers (sorry, I mean viewers) as possible. … Avatar is above all a wonderful vehicle for boosting the number of 3D cinemas. The 3D films that have been doing the rounds in the past eighteen months have only been seen by a small minority so far. But now almost 50 percent of the cinemas screening the film are equipping themselves with the technology to present the film in 3D." (17/12/2009)

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All available articles from » Jean-Baptiste Jacquin

The regional parliament in Catalonia will vote Friday on introducing a law that would ban bullfighting in this autonomous Spanish region. The initiative for the draft law was launched by animal rights activists, but separatist arguments and hate of the Spanish nation state have become mixed up in the debate, the conservative daily La Razón writes: "The Catalan parliament tomorrow faces a highly charged vote, both socially and politically. … Furthermore in Catalonia the nationalist component comes into play, which stigmatises bullfighting as a Spanish national custom alien to Catalan nature and therefore abhorrent. The combination of these ideological, emotional and political ingredients with the discrepancy of opinions within one and the same party converts tomorrow's debate into a highly explosive cocktail." (17/12/2009)

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