In yesterday's speech Putin once again demonstrated his ability to manipulate, Igor Taro writes, accusing Putin of using double standards: "[In his speech] Putin lumped the West together as a unified whole and sought to rebut European fears about the state of democracy in Russia by citing the sins of the Americans in Vietnam several decades ago. ... When it comes to Russia's arsenal of nuclear weapons, we are sufficiently aware of its strength to know that deploying a couple of defence missiles in Poland hardly constitutes a threat to Russian security. Putin dismisses a democratic election campaign as populism. But what, then, is a two-hour monologue in front of the television cameras?" (15/02/2008)

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In the Kremlin's hostility towards Westerners, the daily sees "a tactic aimed at accumulating assets so that Russia can move on to the next stage in a strong position. By playing the energy card and questioning most past agreements between the West and Moscow in the aftermath of the USSR, Mr. Putin has attempted to give Russia back a powerful status that will have to be heeded. He wants to do everything in his power to stop the Atlantic world from approaching his borders, or what he considers his borders, and even regain ground already lost. With a version of diplomacy that dates back to the Vienna Congress in 1815, Putin is arming Russia with a view to a new distribution of influential spheres. Europeans need to know this." (15/02/2008)

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The daily considers that Putin has delivered a 'testament' that the next Russian president is going to have to respect. "Noticeable in the catalogue of warnings, despite the attenuating affirmation that the Kremlin does not wish a return to the Cold War, is the fact that missiles are pointed towards neighbouring countries that wish to participate in the American anti-missile shield, considered a direct threat to Russia's security. The warning is addressed to Nato members Poland and Czech Republic, but also to Ukraine. ... Yesterday's speech, in which we also find justification for the political use of energy and sarcasm regarding the way Westerners judge the Russian political model, shows that Putin's Russia will not come to an end in May. The internal and external foundations laid down by the president are bound to last numerous years." (15/02/2008)

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"Should the state force us to eat well, drink wisely and behave nicely on public transport, or should we leave people alone unless they are directly damaging others?" wonders columnist Richard Reeves. "Politicians have historically been wary of appearing to pass judgement on our behaviour, but are becoming more outspoken as the impact of Brits Behaving Badly is more keenly felt. ... The positions of government and opposition alike are riddled with inconsistency. Both are stuck between the rock of paternalism and the hard place of liberalism. ... The human tendency to imitate is powerful; it makes both good and bad behaviour become normalised and hard to turn around. ... The political right is correct to suggest that self-regulation - or character - is vital. A good society cannot be built without good people. But the left accurately identifies the role of collective life, and of institutions, in the shaping of behaviour." (14/02/2008)

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Karol Sauerland recalls how the regime in Poland responded to student protests in 1968 by trying to whip up anti-Semitism. "Almost all Polish Jews who had survived the Holocaust and not emigrated straight after the war left the country ... during this period. They left from Gdansk station in Warsaw for Vienna, from where they went on to Israel, the United States or the Federal Republic of Germany. At the time this station was known as the 'transit point.' It was not the way to death, thank goodness, but hardly anyone would have decided to emigrate voluntarily. ... Personally I would compare that exodus of leading minds and of many talented young people (among them, by the way, Jan Tomasz Gross, who sparked off controversial debates with his book about Jedwabne and more recently with his study of post-war anti-Semitism in Poland) with the year 1933 in Germany. ... And hardly anyone who left Poland came back twenty-one years later, in 1989, to reclaim his lost post." (15/02/2008)

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On February 13th, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed that every child in the last year of primary school should honour the memory of one of the 11,000 Jewish school children deported during the Second World War. "This new initiative appears incongruous, suddenly thrown into the public sphere like other presidential announcements. Once again, media noise is disturbing the respect and silence due to History's dead", regrets Henry Rousso. "Once again, only a morbid memory emerges form the past, only criminal history deserves to be commemorated with a bang. These days only utilitarian use is made of history, its complexity and its depth. The past has become a warehouse storing nationalistic political resources, into which anyone can dip and help themselves to whatever serves their immediate interests. It is worrying to see that, once again, the -bad- example has been set at the highest level (...) ." (15/02/2008)

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The European Socialists (PES) have readmitted the suspended Slovak left-wing populist governing party Smer led by Premier Robert Fico to their ranks. The party had been suspended after it formed a government together with the right-wing extremist National Party (SNS). Now Fico and SNS leader Jan Slota have promised in writing to respect minority rights in Slovakia and to revise the controversial new media law. Marian Lesko expresses surprise over the move: "The Eurosocialists suspended Smer in 2006 because the party had violated the principle of not forming a coalition with right-wing extremists. They have now revoked this. It is, of course, their business how seriously they take their own principles. ... The PES now expects Smer to become a normal party. If this happens it would be good for Smer and wonderful for the country." (15/02/2008)

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Hungarian historian Sándor Révész thinks the European social democrats (PES) were wrong to rehabilitate the Slovak party Smer. At the same time, he points out that the behaviour of the Hungarian Socialists (MSZP) has not been consistent either: "Four years ago Robert Fico tried to enlist the support of the MSZP in Budapest for his quest to join the PES and the Socialist International. The party of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia (MKP) and the opposition party Fidesz warned at the time that Smer was a nationalist and populist party hostile to Hungarians, to the Roma and to Europe. ... To no avail. Fico won the goodwill of the MSZP. Anyone who has opened the door to those who are not socially acceptable can hardly be genuinely outraged." (15/02/2008)

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"In the big television debate on February 14th, the three front-runners in the presidential elections on February 17th expressed their views on the campaign's central theme: reunification", explains the daily. "The president, Tassos Papadopoulos, at the head of left-wing coalition, faced his two rivals, the very influential communist Dimitri Christofias, and the right-wing candidate Giannis Kasoulidis. They brought up the rejection of the 2004 United Nations reunification plan, Kosovo and the EU. But did the three candidates really show that they are fully aware that the future of the island is important? That the reunification is not far off and that the efforts made by Tassos Papadopoulos should not be left by the wayside? Do our two communities (Greek and Turkish Cypriots) have to seize control of the bulldozers to destroy that damned wall of shame themselves?" (15/02/2008)

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Two Tunisians who are suspected together with a Dane of Moroccan origins of plotting to kill the graphic artist who drew the Muhammad caricatures are to be expelled from Denmark. No official reason has been given for the expulsion and there has been no trial. The newspaper writes: "At the heart of the debate about foreigners judged by the PET [secret service] to be a threat to the country's security or to public order is the question of whether we want to accept secret court actions or secret agreements between government authorities if they only affect these foreigners. Or whether we want to do everything possible to adhere to democratic legal principles for everyone living in our country. We would be doing a service to foreigners, Danes and the PET alike if we removed uncertainties in the application of the terrorism laws." (15/02/2008)

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Rachad Armanios reproaches Danish papers for having republished a caricature of the prophet Mohamed on February 13th as a reaction to a foiled attempt to assassinate a caricaturist in Denmark. "When extremists - according to the police - attempt to add oil to the fire, should we play their game and flex our muscles ? ... Instead of taking sides with the majority of Muslims - who are hostage to these fanatics- the same caricatures that accuse them are published again and again. The Danish papers and the others could have thought up new drawings, more subtle ones capable of denouncing at a glance not Islam, but the fanatic excesses that this religion, as well as all the other ones, can lead to. This 'nuance' is unlikely on today's agenda, judging by the unreserved, opportunistic reception French politicians and media are giving the new 'Muslim Marianne', the Somali Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who only sees death and desolation in the Koran and the prophet." (15/02/2008)

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The novel "Les Bienveillantes" (The Kindly Ones) by Jonathan Littell is due to be published in German as "Die Wohlgesinnten" in the next few days. It portrays the campaign of extermination against the Jews from the perspective of an SS officer and has already caused a sensation in France. The sociologist and memory researcher Harald Welzer does not think much of the novel : "In the extraordinary tension between its lack of quality and the hype it has triggered, Littell's novel represents a new level in the escalation of fascination with the Nazi era, precisely in the way it mixes historical facts, violent pornography and the solidity of its middle-class intellectual protagonist Aue. This mixture results in a pure affirmation of horror; the only interesting thing about it is that Littell has not written a novel in the classic sense but has produced an endless list of what he apparently regards as facts." (15/02/2008)

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Slovenian films are breaking all records. Of the 25 films currently being shown at cinemas in Ljubljana, one fifth were made in Slovenia. The biggest success is Marko Naberšnik's first film "Rooster's Breakfast" (Petelinji zajtrk), which has drawn 170,000viewers in only 17 weeks. Zenja Leiler writes: "One cannot miss the fact that most successful Slovenian films are comedies, which, however, is no guarantee of success. 'Rooster's Breakfast' scores points with its simplicity, intimate atmosphere and Severina [a well-known Croatian pop singer] and came at just the right time. ... Only a year ago there was not a single Slovenian film in the cinemas. The filmmakers were still preoccupied with themselves and their financial problems." (15/02/2008)

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The everday life of homosexual couples in Poland forms the subject of the documentary film "homo.pl" by Robert Glinski, which had its premiere in Poland yesterday. In an interview with Gabriela Pewińska, Gliński explains why the film will not cause a scandal: "I just met some nice people. I had no intention of looking at what they do in bed. Instead I wanted to focus on the human side of their lives. ... On the things that connect them with the outside world and not those that distinguish them from it. ... There is no aggression in the film, neither from them nor towards them. It does not show intolerance or homosexuals fighting for their rights. It is a portrait of people experiencing relationships, who maintain contact with their heterosexual friends and their families." (14/02/2008)

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American filmmaker Steven Spielberg refused on Tuesday, February, 12th, to choreograph the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. Simon Jenkins denounces the International Olympic Committee's inflation of the games' nationalism, which makes them "a grotesque display of chauvinism .... The British Olympic Association, presumably after consultation with ministers, outrageously tried to ban British athletes from making political statements. When the Chinese police start beating up athletes, journalists and activists this August, where will Brown ... stand : for liberty and human rights, or for the semi-laundered tyrants of Tiananmen Square? The only answer, given the rampant politicising of these games, is to regard them as a festival of politics as well as of sport and civil engineering. Having awarded China's communist regime the accolade of the publicity, the world should howl its contempt for its behaviour." (15/02/2008)

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The daily regrets that the Portuguese region of Madeira has just refused a bill intended to get the capital onto the World Heritage list established by Unesco. "The Communist Party [PC] proposed the candidacy of Funchal with the support of all the parties of the regional legislative Assembly, apart from the Social-democrat party [PSD, right-wing]. Of course the proposition was rejected by the PSG, which governs Madeira with an absolute majority. Founded in 1508, Funchal is celebrating its 500th anniversary this year. ... Having been the high and mighty lord of Madeira for more than 30 years, the PSD [Personified by the governor of the island, Alberto Joao Jardim] is used to ignoring the opposition's initiatives. There is surprising suspicion towards Unesco, which leads to quite a lot of speculation: a world heritage town has to respect very strict conservation rules and while many welcome this, some are less enthusiastic." (13/02/2008)

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