Here's a quick extract from President Medvedev's interview with Der Spiegel, (the whole of which can be read here) where he discusses Putin's eyebrow-raising comments about how power is allotted in Russia:SPIEGEL: Putin's recent comment about the next presidential election greatly astonished many in the West. When asked which of you will stand for election, he said that the two of you would "sit down and reach an agreement" regarding what happens in 2012. Former President Gorbachev was shocked. He said that if an agreement was to be reached with anyone, it would have to be with the electorate. But the people apparently don't play a role any more.Medvedev: I would recommend that Mr. Gorbachev ...

We've heard from a lot of observers that the most critical flaw in the "reset button diplomacy" proposal from the Barack Obama administration was the shaky assumption that the Russian counterparts hold any interest whatsoever in improving relations.  Today, however, at least in preliminary terms, we have seen Mr. Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev appear to be willing to sign a wide raft of deals.  This may come as a surprise to Clifford Gaddy of Brookings, who commented to Der Spiegel that the Russians never really warmed up to the reset button idea.  Naturally "resetting" relations is not mutually exclusive from the achievement of positive agreements.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So the Russians instead see in Obama's visit an opportunity for ...

Der Spiegel has supposedly obtained confidential documents written by the EU team led by Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini that is investigating the war last summer. There are quite a few interesting little nuggets in Der Spiegel's write-up. Here are a few:

The confidential investigative commission documents, which SPIEGEL has obtained, show that the task of assigning blame for the conflict has been as much of a challenge for the commission members as it has for the international community. However, a majority of members tend to arrive at the assessment that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili started the war by attacking South Ossetia on August 7, 2008. The facts assembled on Tagliavini's desk refute Saakashvili's claim that his country became the innocent victim of "Russian aggression" on that day.

The experts found no evidence to support claims by the Georgian president, which he also mentioned

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Der Spiegel has a fascinating article about a piece of historical documentation which has been uncovered, revealing whether it was Walter Ulbricht or Nikita Khrushchev who came up with the idea of building the Berlin Wall.

Khrushchev, at any rate, stepped up the pace. "We will give you one or two weeks to make the necessary economic preparations," he told Ulbricht. "Then you will convene the parliament and issue the following communiqué: 'Beginning tomorrow, checkpoints will be erected and transit will be prohibited. Anyone who wishes to cross the border can do so only with the permission of certain authorities of the German Democratic Republic."

Khrushchev wanted to convince the East German population that the wall being built would protect them from Western spies, and he said that the

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It seems that when it comes to the Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008, impartiality is very hard to come by.  A supposedly independent commission from the European Union is soon due to put out its report on who did what, but the German magazine Der Spiegel has already leaked the story - which points the blame principally on Georgia.  Naturally a lot of people don't like that conclusion.  Below is an excerpt from an interesting piece disputing both the Der Spiegel article and the commission's unreleased report, and later today we'll be putting up a video of some interviews commenting specifically on this blame game.TCS Daily:

The already embattled Georgian President Mikheil "Misha" Saakashvili's ill-fortunes don't seem to be improving. In late

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General Motors Corp. (GM) reportedly found a buyer for its majority stake in German unit Opel a day after the struggling automaker said it does not plan to repay a $1 billion debt due June 1.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Fiat SpA was close to a deal to buy a large chunk of GM's European business. The Italian carmaker is already in talks to buy a stake in Chrysler LLC with an April 30 deadline for the transaction.

A unit of Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna International Inc. (MGA) is also reported to have shown interest in the Ruesselsheim-based Opel. However, none of the parties confirmed these reports.

GM needs to sell a large stake in Opel to get about $4.30 billion in German government loan guarantees to keep the unit afloat. The Detroit auto giant

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Der Spiegel has an interesting article on Turkey's precarious position as a critical energy transit country now that Georgia has been virtually knocked off the map (in terms of investment). It seems that ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who's always good for a laugh, has offered both to annex Turkey as well as trade them natural gas for nuts. "No one loves you the way I love you," the thick-set populist who speaks fluent Turkish, recently sang before a Turkish audience in Istanbul. Zhirinovsky, a graduate of Oriental studies, visited Turkey for the first time in 1962 as a translator for the Soviet Union's State Committee for Exports. During his visit he was arrested for spreading "communist propaganda" and spent 17 days in jail. Later he wrote a pamphlet about his experiences and recommended that his country annex all Turkic countries because ...