The Media Mirror – Weekend's Russian press review
Russian weeklies cover a large range of domestic and international issues, paying special attention to the APEC summit in Australia and the start of the electoral campaign in Russia.
ITOGI has chosen this picture as its photograph of the week. A decade after her tragic death the people’s love for Princess Diana is as strong as ever.
MOSKOVSKIE NOVOSTI weekly features an article “Three Metres of Security”, describing the security precautions taken by Sydney to ensure the safety of the 15th APEC summit. Part of downtown Sydney has been cut off by a tall fence. It seems anti-globalists don’t stand a chance.
The same weekly has a column by Evgeny Primakov. The former Russian Prime Minister is also one of the world’s leading experts on the Middle East. A rumor launched recently by the British newspaper Daily Telegraph has the U.S. ready and willing to strike Iran. True or not? Mr Primakov says readiness doesn’t mean intention. But if it is a bluff, Iran is quite likely to call it. If that happens, the situation will change so rapidly that the U.S. might be left with no time to think. It does happen in poker, says Evgeny Primakov: when the bluff is called, the bluffer is tempted to stake his all.
The State Duma electoral campaign has begun in Russia. The Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission,Vladimir Churov, is sure about the upcoming parliamentary election, writes ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA weekly. The Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission puts forward 15 reasons why he believes it will be fair.
PROFILE magazine continues the story. Mr Churov’s reasons are based on the results of the tireless work of his Commission. Vladimir Churov says he is sure that the election will be conducted strictly according to Election Law.
Right at the start of the election campaign OGONYOK weekly celebrates the launch of a new book by the icon of Russian standup comedy and political satire, Mikhail Zhvanetsky. Hundreds of Zhvanetsky’s aphorisms have become part of Russians’ daily lives, says the magazine. The weekly quotes one on politics: “A politician is not like a philosopher: he doesn’t tell you his thoughts. He guesses yours instead. He usually guesses right. But he is unable to put them into practice”.
ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA also has an article about a group of refugees from Rwanda settled in a village in the Pskov region in northern Russia. It happened in 1994. Rwandan graduates of Russian universities suddenly found out that going home would mean imminent death. So they helped their families escape, brought them to Russia and started the first Afro-Russian rural community in history.
