Media Mirror - Read today's Russian press review

The Russian press on Monday focuses on three main issues: Rising prices becoming a political matter, The Chinese Communists gathering for the XVIIth Congress of their party, and the failure of Russia and the U.S. to come to a compromise on missile defence

VREMYA NOVOSTEI writes the rise in food prices could have been prevented. Everyone blames regional wholesale traders, and not without reason. But the traders, says the paper, could not have amassed such monopolistic power if local agriculture officers were not in on their dealings. 

IZVESTIA adds that the problem is fast becoming a political matter. Even if the right steps are taken to tackle it, the issue will cloud the whole period of the Duma election campaign.

“Under the Marxist Banner – to Capitalism”, reads a headline in NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA. The Chinese Communist party is opening its XVIIth Congress in Beijing. The interaction between China and the outer world is very much on the agenda, says the paper.

VREMYA NOVOSTEI says the Chinese Communist party calls the current period of history a “Golden Era” of development and also “The Time of Contradictions”. The severe ecological damage caused by the fast development of industries and the widening gap between the rich and the poor are highlighted. The Chinese Communists are going to solve all their problems without Western help. The West cannot understand China in full, they say, and thus cannot be a teacher for the Chinese people.

ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA says last September China and Russia held a joint conference on Democratic Development in the Current International Context. The Chinese side was interested in learning more about the Russian concept of Sovereign Democracy.

VREMYA NOVOSTEI adds that the Russia-U.S. dialogue in its latest phase, the 2+2 negotiations, has proven every bit as hard as ever. One of the experts quoted by the paper says the talks were neither a failure nor a success – they yielded no result but then again, no one expected a result".

NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA continues: the main result of the 2+2 meeting is the fact that from now on this format will become a permanent fixture in relations between the two countries. One more result is the sincere confession by Condoleezza Rice about having no idea where Russia is going.

ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA has a column by Sergei Karaganov who makes a prediction: “U.S.–Russia relations will get worse before they get better. Relations may improve a couple of years into the term of the next U.S. administration.” He writes its unlikely there’ll ever be friendship between the two countries. But that doesn’t matter all that much, as long as there is mutual understanding.