Press review 1 September 2008

by Lance King

Article published on the 2008-09-01 Latest update 2008-09-01 11:00 TU

Nearly all the papers this morning are examining the European Union summit today in Brussels on what to do with Russia following the conflict with Georgia.

The left-wing Libération's editorial says that in all likelihood the European Union won't do anything. Or at least, "almost nothing", which is the title of the piece. "Libé" says almost nothing because, Europe doesn't agree on what do to and because Europe has never really decided what kind of relationship it should have with Russia.

Europe needs Russian resources and Russia needs European capital and know how, so any measures taken by the EU will probably be, at best, temporary and minimal.

The best we can hope for, says Libération, is that this "almost nothing" is at least agreed upon unanimously.

The right-wing Le Figaro points out that Russia has the largest reserve of natural gas in the world, and is the second largest producer of petrol. A lot of this goes to Europe. So, Russia certainly has some leverage. Some countries are calling for sanctions. However, if that happens, Europe should expect its energy costs to rise.

A European diplomat told Le Figaro that if Russian Prime Minister Putin controls Georgia, he’ll control Europe’s energy supply. If we go to sleep now, we'll be putting ourselves in Putin's hand, he said.

The centrist daily Le Monde has a five-page special on the issue.

This paper's editorial points out that Russia offers Abkhazia and South Ossetia's inhabitants Russian passports, as Russian law makes it possible to give passports to people who live in what was previously the USSR.

As it is now, 90 percent of Abkhazia's population has a Russian passport. The same goes for South Ossetia.

Le Monde says the governments of Lithuania and Estonia won't give its Russian-speaking population passports, unless they take an integration test. So Russia could also give them passports. In a sense, says the paper Russia is getting larger.