RFE/RL: Polish FM: EU Won't Apologize For Being 'Attractive' To Its Neighbors
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posted by eagle on May, 2009 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
May 07, 2009Polish FM: EU Won't Apologize For Being 'Attractive' To Its Neighbors
PRAGUE – In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, says the European Union will not apologize for the "civilizational attraction" of its Eastern Partnership project, a Polish-Swedish initiative that Russia claims is a front for an attempt to secure the bloc a "sphere of influence."
Sikorski spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas on the sidelines of a summit in Prague of 27 EU leaders and the representatives of Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, which launched the Eastern Partnership.
RFE/RL: Almost without exception, various EU officials and many of your colleagues have vehemently rejected suggestions that the EU is looking for a "sphere of influence" in the East. What does the EU have against influence?
Radoslaw Sikorski: I think people object to the 19th-century sound of the idea of a sphere of influence. But we don't apologize for the European Union being civilizationally attractive to its neighbors. And if they want to ... >> full
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Prague Watchdog: One Year On - Annals Of The Kremlin's Decadence
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
One year on - annals of the Kremlin's decadenceBy Andrei Babitsky, special to Prague Watchdog Prague To sum up the results of a series of actions is the easiest thing to do, because the actions contain links that demonstrate tendencies, they hide the codes of a future that has not yet been fully revealed, but can be guessed. To analyze a void is not more difficult – it is not possible at all. A vacuum is aggressively silent, sending in response to all questions a guarded "I wasn’t here, am not here now, and won’t be here in the future.” Nevertheless, the upside of what happens when a void gapes in the space that is organized by human activity is that by its silence it exposes the poverty and futility of articulation. When it became clear that Medvedev would be appointed in place of his predecessor, hope began to dawn in the camp of the people who hated Kadyrov. A ... |
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Window On Eurasia: Moscow’s Policies Pushing Russia’s Muslims Toward A United ‘Front,’ Tatar Activist Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, May 8 – Moscow’s plan to cut the regional component in most school programs this fall is likely to lead Muslim nations within the borders of the Russian Federation to come together in a united “front” to press for the reversal of that policy through international courts and via other means, according to a leading Kazan Tatar activist.
In an interview posted online yesterday, Damir Iskhakov, a leading theoretician of the Tatar national movement, warned that the Russian government’s “harsh” insistence on taking this step will thus have “negative consequences for the state interests of Russia” and present the center with a challenge it will find hard to counter (www.apn.ru/publications/article21587.htm).
“I would prefer a more democratic path in which all national groups would be given greater opportunities for development, but at present, I do not see such a possibility in Russia.” And he urged the central authorities to ...
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Christian Science Monitor: Medvedev’s First Year: Has Justice Improved In Russia?
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Medvedev’s first year: Has justice improved in Russia?
Some Russians say a new Amnesty International assessment understates the dangers faced by those who dare to offer dissent. By Fred Weir | 05.08.09
MOSCOW – A year after Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated as president of Russia pledging to put a more liberal face on the Kremlin, the country’s dismal human rights picture has not improved, according to a new report by the global monitoring group Amnesty International. “A year ago, as he took office, President Medvedev declared his commitment to enhancing the rule of law,” Amnesty’s secretary general Irene Khan said in a statement accompanying the report, timed for release in Russia on Medvedev’s first anniversary Thursday. “In the course of the last year, Medvedev set several goals. However, no significant changes are yet visible.” The report covers a wide range of developments over the past year, including an unabated series of physical attacks on journalists and civil society activists. It notes that despite Kremlin rhetoric, “in some areas the situation has worsened.” Russian human rights monitors ...
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Rabble.ca: Sid, Alex And Michael: The Canada-Russia Nexus
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Sid, Alex and Michael: the Canada-Russia nexusBy M.Gregus Created May 8 2009 - 10:04am Rick Salutin summary: There's more to those Crosby-Ovechkin, Sid the Kid vs. Alex the Great duels in the Pittsburgh-Washington playoff series than hockey. The Russia-Canada nexus has a long backstory. There's more to those Crosby-Ovechkin, Sid the Kid vs. Alex the Great duels in the Pittsburgh-Washington playoff series than hockey. The Russia-Canada nexus has a long backstory. We tend to focus on our imperial-colonial history, our relations with France, Britain and the U.S. But Russia has a formidable place too, because it's a northern country, like us. Though we're keenly aware of the U.S. border, Russia is our other neighbour and rival. It is our obverse. Flip us over at the top and there's Russia. It has always given Canadians palpitations. Those hockey cataclysms in 1956 and 1972 weren't the first times we were shaken by comparing ourselves with Russia. In 1890, a Canadian literary critic wrote: "Could Count Tolstoy write War and Peace or Ivan Turgenev hold you ... ...
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