"This Duma election was essentially a referendum about extending Putin's position of power as the 'nation's leader', Reinhard Meier declares. "Those who vote for the United Russia party (Putin is its leading candidate but is not a formal member of the party) are supporting the 'Putin Plan'. The grotesque thing about this formula is that no one has yet given a detailed explanation of what this plan entails. ... The weeks following the parliamentary elections will show us what Putin intends to do with the blank cheque he had the majority of voters give him through this election with regards to the presidential elections on March 2nd, which are far more important in terms of realpolitik. Perhaps the nervousness and irritability in the Kremlin during the end phase of the parliamentary election campaign also had to do with the fact that the scenario for the presidential elections still remains unclear from an internal point of view." (03/12/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Rosja
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Reinhard Meier

"Now that Vladimir Putin has achieved an electoral triumph, the real match for power is about to begin in Russia", considers Franco Venturini. "The plebiscite was to guarantee the moral right to remain leader without becoming president and the Russians have said yes to this. Now he has to consider what to do next ... . The second part of Tsar Putin's plan to remain master will not be easy to put into practice. And the West has very good reason to keep a very close eye on him, for this is the best time to remind Russia that in order to develop economically, it needs foreign investors. Its accession to the WTO and its legitimate implication in big international issues are, with the bare minimum of internal democracy, two sides of the same coin." (03/12/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, Corriere della Sera)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Rosja
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Franco Venturini

It makes your ears burn to hear the Kremlin talk of a triumph of democracy in connection with the elections, but there is an element of truth in it," Jan Rybář comments. "We should remember how the world feared the return of fanatic communists or nationalists until just a couple of years ago. A glance over the border to Belarus - a communist museum managed by an arrogant dictator - suffices. With a little bad luck things could have turned out the same in Russia. From a historical perspective Russia's development has been a triumph for democracy. The former communist empire is freer than one had dared to hope. Nonetheless, democracy is defined somewhat differently in the West. Russia has a long way to go before it conforms to that definition." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, czeski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Rosja
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jan Rybář

The Estonian newspaper describes the elections in Russia as a farce and reflects on how the West should react: "The West should give serious thought to the question of how it wants to shape its relations with an increasingly authoritarian Russia. Is it normal for such a country to be allowed to continue as a member of the G8 club of rich democracies? And what future does the Council of Europe have when a man like the Russian Mikhail Margelov takes over the chairmanship of the parliamentary assembly? ... It would be naïve to believe that the West is really in a position to influence Russia, but the undemocratic elections, the suppression of the opposition and the growing chauvinism should at least prompt the West to adopt a joint stance towards Russia. The mask has now fallen." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, estoński)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Rosja, » Europa, » Cały świat

In a dual interview conducted by Pedro Garcia Cuartango, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy discusses the importance of Europe with the Spanish thinker Fernando Savater. "The difference between France and Spain is due to the fact that the two states were not formed in the same manner. In France there is something known as Jacobinism ... . This is a tragedy that plagues French politics. Europe is the remedy for Jacobinism. And in Spain, Europe is also a real remedy for terrorism, fundamentalism, multinationals, ETA and violence. But not the lazy Europe we know today, not the 'why not' Europe, the Europe of markets and the euro. I am referring to the Europe of the people, of civilisations, of rights and laws, anti-terrorism and the enlightenment. That optimistic Europe we lived in during the 1950s and that is now at the point of dying." (01/12/2007)

» Strona www (Link zewnętrzny, El Mundo)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Pedro Garcia Cuartango, » Bernard-Henri Levy, » Fernando Savater

Interviewed by Guy Duplat, the French artist Daniel Buren explains his artistic method which involves working in and occupying a specific place. "There is nothing new about working on location. But we need to hark back to the renaissance to retrace it. At the time frescoes and sculptures were conceived for very specific places, which necessarily modified them. Clumsy attempts have since been made to transport these frescoes and turn them into moveable paintings. This practice of working on location has virtually disappeared since the 19th century. Many 20th century artists have regretted the lack of opportunity to work on location and there produce specific, isolated pieces. But painting, it is said, has been 'freed' from places. What I am interested in is the opposite. Painting has been alienated, not freed from places. My approach has been to reconsider place as something essential, including in artistic production." (01/12/2007)

» Dalsze informacje (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Sztuki piękne, » Francja
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Daniel Buren, » Guy Duplat

On Saturday, December 1st, Yves Leterme, the Flemish leader, who since June 10th was supposed to form a government, handed his resignation to the king. Discord continues between Flemish and French-speaking parties. Editor in Chief Béatrice Delvaux writes that "an institutional big bang is necessary. There are however a few outstanding formalities that need to be dealt with before French-speaking parties agree to throw themselves into this adventure: first of all, the reality of this crisis needs to be officially recognised by a statesman, in order to check that the current dead-lock is not merely the result of Yves Leterme's arbitrary and patent incapacity. Which is a possibility. This statesman could well be Guy Verhofstadt [outgoing prime minister who has been managing current affairs for the past six months], seeing as he has shown that he is not just on the Flemish side and that he had no intention of forming a government of national destruction." (03/12/2007)

» Dalsze informacje (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Belgia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Béatrice Delvaux

Today the UN climate summit opens in Bali. Konrad Mrusek comments that although many countries want to take action against climate change, there is a "copycat trend" in this area of policy. "Moralists may bemoan this, but there's an economic logic to it. Those responsible for climate change and those who suffer the consequences are not one and the same, and there are winners and losers. The climate is public property; the atmosphere is like a global piece of common land that is used by all and - as is often the case with common property - also overused. ... One nation must take the lead otherwise nothing will change. The EU has done this. Under the German presidency the decision was made that the EU would cut its emissions by 20 percent by 2020, and if others join the initiative that target is to go up to 30 percent. This was an important message in the game of climate poker." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Środowisko, » Europa, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Konrad Mrusek

Peter Preston considers that the future of the Balkans is in the hands of the EU. "Slovenia joined [the EU] in the last wave but one. Croatia, accession treaty drafted, stands on the edge of membership. Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and - yes! - Kosovo, are further down the queue but near the top of an urgent agenda. Serbia is key to everything ... And, if you head south, there's the free nation we prefer not to think about - Albania ... . The Balkans belong to our Europe. ... Membership is our patent antidote to narrow nationalism. The EU that helped bring peace to western Europe long ago still has much work to do. ... The lesson of Kosovo is clear enough and an eerie replica of crises the world never solves - Kashmir, say, or Cyprus - because troops just holding the ring are of no account. Take them away and you're back to square one. What you have to put in their place is a sense of direction." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Rozszerzenie UE, » Polityka bezpieczeństwa / Kryzys / Wojna, » Europa Środkowa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Peter Preston

The Irish daily takes stock of British leadership. "A mere eight weeks ago Gordon Brown dominated British politics after an effective start as prime minister when he handled several problems calmly and competently. ... The picture now is changed utterly. His strategic mistake in feeding speculation about a general election during the Conservative party conference in early October, only to decide against it, substituted opportunism for statecraft. Then the run on the Northern Bank was followed by the loss of 25 million social welfare identities in the post, adding incompetence to his image. These misfortunes culminated in last week's scandal about party funding, in which Labour was exposed to have broken the laws passed in 2000 by accepting hefty sums anonymously or by proxy. ... Mr Brown has time to escape from this morass before the next election, though he cannot afford many more such shocks." (03/12/2007)

» Dalsze informacje (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Wielka Brytania

Several hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of Barcelona on December 1st to protest against chaos in public transport and demand Catalonia's right to 'decide on its own infrastructures'. The daily considers that participants have been fooled. "The demonstration soon forgot the trains in order to exalt the independentist cause. The organisers themselves, who don't seem to care about the infrastructure problems, admitted that it was a trap, explaining that their real aim is to hold a referendum on secession. The CiU party [Convergence and Union, right wing Catalan independentist] has had the most shameful attitude. Everyone knows that it achieved virtually nothing in matters of transport during its 23 years of governance [at the head of Catalonia]. ... It should rather have built metros when it not only had the right to, but the duty as well." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, hiszpański)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Infrastruktura / Komunikacja, » Hiszpania

Bulgaria's two most widely read newspapers "24 Chassa" and "Trud" belong to the German media group WAZ. They recently participated in a smear campaign against art historian Martina Baleva, who had criticised the official version of the Batak massacre. The WAZ media group has now announced plans to exercise tougher control over the contents of the two newspapers in future. According to Alexander Andreev, there has been a series of intercultural misunderstandings in this debate: "There's every indication in this debate that the Bulgarian public and media still haven't adopted the cultural norms of Germany (and other EU countries). In future, there should therefore be skilled and well-intentioned mediation to avoid escalations in similar situations. The same goes for the other side: many Western Europeans should show more understanding towards the new EU members. But above all there should be no excuse for those who try to gain a political advantage from such campaigns." (29/11/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, bułgarski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka medialna, » Bułgaria
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Alexander Andreew

The Romanian abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" by director Cristian Mungiu won the best film prize Saturday at the European Film Awards in Berlin. Alexandra Olivotto is delighted: "The fact that both the jury at Cannes and the jury of the European Film Academy coincided in this says a lot about the quality of the film. ... The question now is whether the colleagues in Hollywood will be infected by the stormy passion for this film here in Europe. For although Mungiu has now been awarded two 'European Oscars', that's no guarantee he'll receive the real one. The film 'The Lives of Others', which also won two European film prizes, was an exception rather than the rule. The European Film Academy is younger; the American Film Academy has many more members and they are older. Seldom in its recent history has the Oscar for the best foreign film gone to a revolutionary film." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, rumuński)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Film, » Europa, » USA, » Rumunia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Alexandra Olivotto

The European Film Academy awarded its film prizes last weekend in Berlin. Among the winners were Cristian Mungiu, Fatih Akin and Jean-Luc Godard. Daniel Kothenschulte criticises the fact that the European Film Awards are still eclipsed by the Oscar and the major film festivals and national awards. "Don't awards like the 'European Film Awards' help to make artistic films more well-known? ... Despite winning the main prize '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' [by Cristian Mungiu] was showing in only 16 German cinemas this weekend. In the case of Godard, who, as explained in the reasons for his receiving the prize of honour, has never ceased to 'surprise, challenge, amaze and entertain both audiences and critics', one asks oneself who can judge this for himself nowadays. Since 1991 he has made a film almost every year, but here in Germany not even television has taken any notice of them." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Film, » Europa

Journalist Ben Quinn explains how crowds are literally "suffering for their art at the Tate Modern" in London, where an installation by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo is intended to symbolise racial hatred and division in society. "Casualties have been mounting up at Tate Modern in London, where 15 people were hurt viewing Shibboleth 2007 in the first four weeks after its opening. Beginning as a crack, Shibboleth widens and deepens as it snakes across the gallery's Turbine Hall, until in some places it is large enough for a toddler to fall into. Staff have been detailed to monitor visitors wandering around the hall, but a Freedom of Information request by 'The Times' has revealed that their efforts have not been entirely successful. ... The museum has considered using Perspex glass to cover Shibboleth 2007, which opened on October 8 runs the full 167 metres (548 feet) of the cavernous hall." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, angielski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Sztuki piękne, » Wielka Brytania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Ben Quinn

In Kaloyanovo, a village in south-east Bulgaria, part of the 15-tonne propeller of a wind turbine recently fell down, damaging the roofs of nearby residential and farm buildings. There was a similar incident in the city of Kavarna. This time the entire wind turbine, which weighed 70 tonnes, broke off. Siya Welinova comments: "Most of the electricity generators installed in Bulgaria are second-hand. Even though they have been repaired, they still have defects. In addition to the permanent danger of collapse, they are also very noisy. ... Bulgarian firms are buying old technology and achieving the same goals as their Western European colleagues through smaller investments. These firms are making huge profits. But for people living nearby and for consumers the problems remain because the electricity generated by these environmentalist plants is much more expensive." (03/12/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, bułgarski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Energia, » Bułgaria
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Siya Velinova