by Edward Hugh: Barcelona br /br /Well reading the press this morning it would be fairly easy to reach the conclusion that nothing really happened yesterday in Brussels, and that a great opportunity was lost. The latter may finally be true, but the former most certainly is not. br /br /Let's look first at what was not decided on Sunday. The leaders of the 27 member countries in the European Union most certainly did not vote to back a proposal from Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany for a 180-billion-euro ($228 billion) aid package for central and eastern Europe. They did not back it because it was not even seriously on the agenda at this point. These people move slowly and we need to talk them throught one step at a time. So what was on the agenda. EU bonds for one, and a href="http://edwardhughtoo.blogspot.com/2009/02/let-east-into-eurozone-now.html"accelerated euro membership for the East for ...

TODAY: Putin to stage early elections? Moscow newspaper editor in critical condition after being beaten; EU-Russia talks resume today amid Kremlin’s tensions with Ukraine and worries over NATO expansion; Gates critical of missile plans; Putin’s colourful language. A former Duma deputy slams the Kremlin’s ‘feckless budgetary policy’ and ponders the likelihood of Vladimir Putin staging early elections to lessen the possibility of social unrest stemming from the financial crisis. The Moscow Times has fixated on Dmitry Medvedev’s evasion of a question during his Le Figaro interview on whether or not he will step down early from the presidency. A criminal investigation has been launched after Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a small, Moscow-based opposition newspaper who has fought to protect Russian forestland, was beaten up outside his home. Beketov is in ...

TODAY: Putin to stage early elections? Moscow newspaper editor in critical condition after being beaten; EU-Russia talks resume today amid Kremlin’s tensions with Ukraine and worries over NATO expansion; Gates critical of missile plans; Putin’s colourful language. A former Duma deputy slams the Kremlin’s ‘feckless budgetary policy’ and ponders the likelihood of Vladimir Putin staging early elections to lessen the possibility of social unrest stemming from the financial crisis. The Moscow Times has fixated on Dmitry Medvedev’s evasion of a question during his Le Figaro interview on whether or not he will step down early from the presidency. A criminal investigation has been launched after Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a small, Moscow-based opposition newspaper who has fought to protect Russian forestland, was beaten up outside ...

Today the French newspaper Le Figaro has published a lengthy interview with the president of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev. Below we present an English translation. The big news revealed in the interview is a seemingly direct offer to president-elect Barack Obama to cancel Russia's plans to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad in exchange for Washington abandoning support for the anti-ballistic missile site to be based in Poland. Medvedev Extends a Hand to Obama E. MOUGOTTE: Mr President, I would like to thank you sincerely for giving your first interview to the foreign press since the election of President Obama to Figaro Newspaper. Many observers were very surprised by your initial reaction. You threatened to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad. Isn’t there the risk that this could introduce conflict to your relations with the new American President?

I have been receiving questions from several friends, colleagues, and a few reporters regarding the situation of Karinna Moskalenko. As many of you recall, Karinna discovered what looked like mercury pellets in her car on Sunday, Oct. 12. That week she and her children fell ill. Karinna was worried they may have been poisoned. She went to the French police and asked them to investigate. By Tuesday, Oct. 14, international media had picked up on the story following comments made by Karinna to Echo Moskvy regarding the likely mercury discovery. On Wednesday, Oct. 22, the French newspaper Le Figaro quoted unnamed police sources saying that the former owner of Karinna's car had been found, and that he said the mercury may have come from a barometer he accidentally broke in the ...

The following is a translation of a rare interview with Mikhail Khodorkovsky by the French newspaper Le Figaro. See the original source here. When Russia is wrong, Europe should say so Le Figaro published on the 20th of September first interview given to the French press by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former oligarch imprisoned in Siberia. LE FIGARO. With the election of Dmiti Medvedev, many hoped for the thaw in Russia. From your prison, have you harboured any hopes of that kind ? What does the crisis in Georgia change ?