[news] European press review

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European press review

 

There is an air of crisis in the Russian press, with predictions of conflict with Georgia over the South Ossetia region and rumours of a possible banking crash.

 

Elsewhere in Europe, Austrian papers look back at President Klestil's career, while a French paper sees Britain's famous EU "rebate" under threat.

 

'Hotting up'

 

Mounting tension between Georgia and Russia, after Georgian troops intercepted a Russian convoy heading for the disputed region of South Ossetia, has set alarm bells ringing in the Moscow press.

 

"Russia and Georgia have reached the brink of armed conflict," the leading daily Izvestiya says.
The two peoples are racing towards armed conflict like two avalanches
Komsomolskaya Pravda  

 

The broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta believes that an outbreak of fighting over the breakaway Georgian region may now be inevitable.

 

"The South Ossetian crisis has reached the critical point beyond which the shooting starts," it says.

 

A commentator in the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda agrees, pointing out that Georgian forces are massing on the Russian border while the South Ossetians are preparing for general mobilization.

 

"The situation in the republic is hotting up," the daily says. "The two peoples are racing towards armed conflict like two avalanches."

 

It adds that Russia must decide whether to protect South Ossetia's breakaway status or accede to Georgia's claim over the region.

 

"Russia is faced with a difficult choice," the paper concludes.

 

An article in the army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda is equally concerned, and describes the situation on the Georgian-Russian border as "worse than it has ever been before".

 

The paper appears to blame Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili for the crisis, saying that he promised his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to continue talks on South Ossetia during his visit to Moscow in February.

 

Cash-flow problems

 

There are jitters on Russia's domestic front as well, with rising speculation over a possible banking crisis after one of the country's banks closed down its branches and cash machines in Moscow and St Petersburg.

 

Izvestiya says Guta Bank's move has sparked a "mass of rumours", and finds little comfort in an offer by Central Bank chef Sergey Ignatyev to help another bank buy out Guta Bank.
The cash dispensers are literally smoking
Nezavisimaya Gazeta  

 

"Is this the beginning of a huge banking crisis?" the paper wonders. "Or is it just an asset grab taking place under cover of a banking crisis?"

 

The daily Trud is similarly suspicious, saying that Ignatyev's plan may herald "the onset of a redistribution of property in the banking sector".

 

"First-division banks which were close to the Kremlin in the 1990s might be falling out of favour - and some have already done so," the daily says.

 

According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta , the sense of crisis appears to have spread to customers of other banks.

 

"The cash dispensers on the streets of Moscow are literally smoking," an article in the paper says.

 

"There are queues everywhere, or otherwise little signs saying that they have run out of money."

 

Assurances by the Russia's Central Bank that there is no crisis in the banking sector have also failed to impress Novaya Gazeta .

 

"Huge queues for which you have to sign up several days in advance, empty cash dispensers and refusals to pay out 'for technical reasons' mean that there is a crisis," it says.

 

The newspaper is worried that queues are also forming outside branches of the Alfa Bank, which it says has no liquidity problems.

 

"If Alfa goes, it will be impossible to avoid a re-run of August 1998," it says.

 

Man of the world

 

As Austria prepares to swear in its new president, Heinz Fischer, the country's press pays tribute to his predecessor Thomas Klestil, who died on Tuesday after a heart attack.

 

Die Presse says that with his death, part of the Austrian republic died too.

 

"This is why today all those who had the odd difference of opinion with Thomas Klestil are also in mourning," it says.

 

In the paper's opinion, one of the late president's many accomplishments was his brilliance as a diplomat.

 

But it adds that "the tragedy of his presidency" was the gap between what he wanted to achieve and what he was able to do.

 

Der Standard agrees, observing that no other president before him tested the limits of his powers quite as much as Thomas Klestil.

 

The newspaper says there were occasions when he "spectacularly" failed to assert himself, in particular when he was unable to prevent Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party from joining the governing coalition.

 

However, it praises Klestil for managing to veto two of the Freedom Party's nominees for cabinet posts, and insisted on modifications to the coalition's programme.

 

Even so, the paper says, "Austrians were shown that a president's formal powers end where the really powerful set the limit."

 

In neighbouring Switzerland, Le Temps praises Klestil's commitment to international co-operation, calling him the "the man who opened up Austria to the world".

 

"Mr Klestil was a convinced European, and it was during his term of office that Austria joined the EU in 1995," the paper says.

 

However, it adds, his long campaign to persuade Austrians to join NATO was ultimately unsuccessful.

 

Money back?

 

Meanwhile, there could be trouble ahead in the EU, if France's Le Monde is to be believed.

 

According to the newspaper, EU Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer has plans to make Britain the biggest net contributor to EU coffers, effectively abolishing the budget rebate secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984.

 

"Britain has become the wealthiest of the EU's major countries, so it is not normal that it should pay less than the others," the daily quotes Schreyer's proposal as saying.

 

It adds the European Commission will propose that the rebate be abolished in 2007 and replaced with a more general mechanism, applicable to all the richer countries.

 

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3875619.stm

 

Published: 2004/07/08 04:55:19 GMT

 

© BBC MMIV

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/europe/3875619.stm

The Russian press frets over tensions with Georgia and rumours of possible banking crisis.

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