Vilnius quiz

street, originalmente cargada por txd.

Hello vilnietis. Who is the clever guy/girl who can tell first which street is this? Post answers here.

The polish Zapatero?

Look at him, he is smiling. Yes, Donald Tusk appears mild-mannered, but friends say the easy outward manner belies a steely ambition that took him to the leadership of his Civic Platform party and now the prime ministership of Poland. A carpenter's son from the Baltic port of Gdansk, the cradle of Poland's anti-communist uprising, can be now the new polish Zapatero, this time without leftist traces. As Solidarity splintered following the 1989 defeat of communism, Mr Tusk became a rightwing liberal and keen advocate of Europe. Mr Tusk entered the upper house in Warsaw in 1997 for the Freedom Union party and became a founder of the Civic Platform in 2001.

We saw his a soothing tone on Tuesday in his first extended comments since a sweeping victory in national elections, pledging to end political strife at home and to improve strained relations with Russia, Germany and the EU.

Ten days ago, the 50-year-old historian went head-to-head in a television duel with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the wily prime minister. But Tusk routed his opponent calmly and systematically. The TV debate was the turning point in an extremely bruising election campaign. The neck-and-neck polls shifted to give the Platform a 10-point lead. Sunday's victory was revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Kaczynski twins in the past.

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"He was tough, decisive and calm," said Tomasz Wolek, a former newspaper editor from Gdansk who has known Mr Tusk for decades. "Donald had a Kaczynski complex and he's finally freed himself of it. He allowed himself to be blackmailed and was put on the defensive. Now he's got tougher."Tusk, a keen amateur football player viewed in his youth as a promising striker, operated in the underground as an anti-communist student leader in Gdansk in the late 1970s before joining the Solidarity movement. After the communists imposed martial law in 1981, he worked on building sites. Both his parents had been forced into slave labour under the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Tusk campaigned on promises to build a more harmonious relationship with the EU and to pursue the economic opportunities presented by membership in the bloc, which Poland joined in 2004.

"The European Union is here — not somewhere in Brussels," Tusk said.

In the United States — which he called "our closest ally, our greatest friend" — Tusk said he would work to keep up the friendship while also establishing a more balanced partnership. Also Russia matters now. Amid already tense ties with Russia, Kaczynski's government has blocked negotiations for a new EU partnership agreement with Moscow due to a Russian embargo on Polish meat, which Russia said it imposed because of health concerns. Poland has also been critical of plans for an undersea pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to Europe, bypassing Poland and raising fears of a potential gas cutoff as well as the loss of transit revenue.

Can Europe smile too?

Tusk-Kaczynski, and uneasy marriage

Tusk won. The twins made enemies across the European Union and also in this blog. Finally, the rightist prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, conceded defeat. But is brother, Lech, will remain president until 2010 and retain veto power over the presumptive new government's legislation. He will form an uneasy cohabitation with the Tusk Government. He will be able to block, at least for a short while, some foreign policy initiatives.

Official results on Tuesday will determine whether Civic Platform achieves an outright majority or more likely needs to form a coalition with the centrist Polish Peasants Party. But Kaczynski is left without any significant partner.

Exit polls awarded 43.7 per cent to Civic Platform, compared with 30.4 per cent for the Law and Justice party. In theory Tusk could form an alliance with the third-place Left and Democracy party, which won 13.3 per cent of the vote, or the Peasants’ Party (PSL), which picked up just over 8 per cent. Neither of Kaczynski’s former coalition allies – the clericalist League of Polish Families and the rural Self-Defence grouping – won enough votes to be represented in parliament.

The Times says that Tusk is likely to choose Radek Sikorski – who made his name as a journalist in Britain in the 1980s – as Foreign Minister.

Traslation of the joke: "Platforma is happy that Lech is back to politics". Thanks, Andrius.

Ciao, Kaczynski

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party under its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the prime minister, on Sunday night admitted defeat in the country’s hard-fought parliamentary elections, putting an end to two turbulent years in government, write Jan Cienski and Stefan Wagstyl in Warsaw for the Financial Times

Civic Platform, Poland’s main opposition party, claimed victory after it emerged as the biggest single party and prepared to form the next government under its leader, Donald Tusk.

PiS narrowly won elections two years ago on a programme of fighting corruption, exposing communist-era collaborators, and helping those who felt left out by reforms that transformed Poland into a capitalist economy 18 years ago.

But once in power, Mr Kaczynski alienated voters with his abrasive political style, fell out with almost all potential coalition partners and failed to win the confidence of business.

During the campaign, Mr Tusk promised to make life easier for business by slashing red tape, reforming public finances, and energetically privatising most of the companies still controlled by the state. He also strongly criticised Mr Kaczynski’s foreign policy.

The official vote count is expected to be released Monday orTuesday.

The outcome was a dramatic reversal for Mr Kaczynski and his twin brother President Lech Kaczynski, who have ruled Poland since 2005, polarising politics and repeatedly running into conflicts with Poland’s European Union partners.

Who fears the verdict of angry youth?

After weeks of campaigning that have seen the Kaczynskis' Law and Justice party (PiS) in the lead, the latest polls suggest that the their rivals in the Civic Platform will win the elections today. The Kaczynski brothers and their Law and Justice Party have poor prospects at the polls in most of Poland's major cities. The twins derive much of their support from voters in rural districtsThe party of Donald Tusk, enjoying an impressive resurgence in recent days, will oust Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leaving Lech, his identical twin, to continue as President in cohabitation with a hostile government, says The Guardian.

The Kaczynskis - or their allies - have denounced gay teachers, advocated the death penalty, compared a Russia-Germany pipeline deal to the pact that divided eastern Europe between Hitler and Stalin and demanded more voting rights from the European Union to reflect the fact that Poland's population would have been bigger than its 38 million if the Nazis had not killed five million Poles during the Second World War.

Despite the political turmoil, the country is booming, with Gdansk only one of many examples of progress. The Polish economy will grow by more than 6 percent this year, and the unemployment rate in Poland has dropped from 19 to 12 percent since the country joined the EU.

Turnout, at over 55 percent, was the highest since Poland voted to end communism in 1989. The high level of participation was expected to benefit the Civic Platform, a centre-right opposition party that had an opinion poll lead, acording to Reuters.

The Kaczynskis have fought repeatedly with EU partners and strained relations with Germany and Russia. The opposition also accused the brothers of focusing on fighting corruption instead of reforming central Europe's biggest economy.

"The Civic Platform's economic program makes more sense to me. The market, not the government, should regulate the economy," said Krzysztof Zawadzki, 36, a tax advisor.

Sixty-year-old Maria Choszczyk, a teacher, said: "I voted for Law and Justice. It's the only party that is serious about combating crime and corruption."

Lech Kaczynski, however, will remain in office whatever Sunday's result, because his presidential term runs until the end of 2010.

Missile in Kamchatka (and Sunrise at Kurilskoye Lake)

Sunrise at Kurilskoye Lake, originalmente cargada por robnunn.

Russia on Thursday carried out a successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, AFP reports.

The Topol RS-12M rocket hit its intended target on Kamchatka near the Pacific Ocean, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement. The launch, from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia, was part of the country's plan to upgrade its ballistic missiles and extend the life of its Topol missiles.

The successful test will allow Russia to maintain the Topol rocket for 21 years, the statement said, significantly more than the original 10 years forecast.

Poland: Election ahead

Poland votes in parliamentary elections on October 21 after the collapse of the governing coalition led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party, writes Jan Cienski in Warsaw.

Why is Poland holding parliamentary elections only two years after the last vote?

The September 2005 election resulted in a narrow plurality for the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS). Efforts to build the coalition wanted by most Poles between PiS and the pro-business Civic Platform party foundered because of personal squabbles and lack of trust despite both parties having their roots in the Solidarity labour union that overthrew Communism. PiS then formed a shaky coalition with two previously marginalised populist parties, the left-wing agrarian Self-Defence party and the nationalist League of Polish Families. The coalition stumbled from crisis to crisis before collapsing over the summer. The reason was a bungled sting operation conducted by a new elite anti-corruption police force against Andrzej Lepper, the leader of Self- Defence.

What are the main campaign issues?

The government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the prime minister, is running on Poland’s strong economic growth and is promising to stamp out corruption he sees as disfiguring post-Communist Poland. He is also promising to defend Poland’s national interests in its relations with Germany and the European Union. Civic Platform is promising to end what it sees the misrule of PiS. It wants to introduce a flat income tax of 15 per cent, continue the privatisation of state companies that has stalled under PiS, and slash some of the red tape that encumbers Polish businesses.

Who’s ahead in opinion polls?

When parliament dissolved itself last month, Civic Platform under its leader Donald Tusk was ahead in most opinion polls. However in the weeks since PiS has shown its superior campaigning skills and has pulled even or ahead. Many political analysts now expect that PiS will win the election. As an example of PiS’s tactical superiority, Mr Kaczynski recently held a televised debate with Aleksander Kwasniewski, the prime ministerial candidate of the Left and Democrats, Poland’s third party, while excluding Mr Tusk, saying the opposition leader was too inconsequential to bother debating with. Mr Tusk’s party took an immediate hit in opinion polls.

Which other parties are running?

The third largest party is the Left and Democrats (LiD), an amalgam of ex-Communists and the intellectual gurus of the Solidarity trade union. The party is expected to get about a fifth of the vote, and is campaigning on being the most radical alternative to PiS. Three other parties are balancing on the edge of the 5 per cent threshold needed to make it into the next parliament: The agrarian Peasants party which is likely to team up with Civic Platform, Self-Defence and the League of Polish Families.

Who is likely to form a government after October 21?

That is the great unknown of Polish politics. If, as many expect, PiS wins the elections, it will still probably need to form a coalition to gain a majority in the 460-seat parliament. The problem is that the party has either alienated or terrified most of the smaller parties in parliament. It has ruled out governing with LiD, and Civic Platform shows little interest in being the junior partner in a coalition with Mr Kaczynski. The prime minister has mused about the possibility of the more conservative wing of Civic Platform breaking away from Mr Tusk and joining PiS, which would be his preferred scenario. The other possibility is for Civic Platform to form a coalition with the Peasants party (if it makes it into parliament) and LiD, although that would open the party to attacks from Mr Kaczynski that is has compromised itself by clambering into bed with Communists. If no party is able to form a government, another election could eventually be called by Lech Kaczynski, the president and the prime minister’s twin brother.

Debata Kaczyński vs. Tusk - gospodarka cz 3/5

After trouncing Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a televised debate, Tusk sent the Civic Platform surging ahead of the PiS in opinion polls. Donald Tusk, head of the pro-business Civic Platform party, achieved what was widely considered a surprise win in his Friday night televised debate with Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the nationalist, conservative Law and Justice party.

Tusk criticized Kaczynski's stewardship of the economy, called his foreign policy "incompetent," and accused the prime minister of damaging the country's delicate ties with neighbors Germany and Russia.

Kaczynski labored to defend his government's policies and achievements, often seeming unprepared, and leaving many unconvinced.

Polish landscape: elections

Fuehrer, originalmente cargada por davidcharding.

Fuehrer Kaczynski?

The political career of Vladimir Vladimirivich Putin.

"Vladimir V. Putin is not a household name," wrote The New York Times on Aug. 9, 1999, the day that an ailing and foundering President Boris N. Yeltsin appointed him the latest in a string of prime ministers. Four and a half months later, Yeltsin resigned and anointed him his successor as president. And since then Putin has in a way become the only household name in Russian politics, having consolidated control over almost every aspect of society and business and marginalized what opposition still exists. In nearly eight years in the Kremlin he has crushed opposition, stripped regional governments of their autonomy, reasserted state control of Russia's energy resources and eliminated most independent media. But thanks to the stability that he has brought, and even more to oil-and-gas-fired growth, Putin remains extremely popular with ordinary Russians, writes The Economist.

Putin's supporters maintain that Russians are not ready for liberal democracy, preferring their tradition of a benevolent dictator/tsar. They contrast the stability and prosperity of the Putin years with the chaos and poverty of the Yeltsin years. Some go further, echoing Mr Putin's view that, even if nobody wants to return to communism, the collapse of the Soviet Union was still the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the late 20th century.

He led Russia back to its historical dependence on one powerful leader, and he did this with the support of a large majority of the Russian people. In some way he has to go. But in some way, he wants to stay.

(...) Keen to avoid unflattering comparisons to the presidents-for-life of central Asian ex-Soviet republics, Mr Putin will find a placeman to stand for president (perhaps the man he just plucked out of obscurity to be his own prime minister, Viktor Zubkov). He himself will then take the post of prime minister, which he held briefly in 1999, probably with enhanced powers. After a decent interval, he could then return to the Kremlin as president.

Before, Putin sent his prime minister into political exile and installed a shadowy newcomer (does he have something on the president?), all the while leaving in place two other potential heirs to the presidency (why didn’t one of them get the prime minister’s job?). Putin continued to insist that he will abide by term limits and not run for president next year (but will he stick to that?). Then he spoke about is future in the Duma. Conveniently, Russia's Constitution puts the prime minister in direct line to succeed the country's president. NYT wrote that whe cannot begrudge the Russians a measure of stability and prosperity after what they have gone through. But what they need now is to start building a true democracy on the basis of that stability and prosperity.

We hope Mr. Putin will rethink this cynical game. If he does run for Parliament, he could use his seat to share his experience and skills with a new political generation -- but we doubt it. If his only intention is to hold on to power, then he will be proclaiming that institutions don't matter, only the person manipulating them. Russia's been there, too long. That is not what it needs now.

In the Dec. 2 parliamentary elections in Russia, about 105 million Russians will be eligible to vote. It is an election that will likely set the course for the future political career of Vladimir Vladimirivich Putin.

Quotation of the week (1)

"This is the first time in post-Soviet history when only the Kremlin decides who can participate and who can’t. The Kremlin decides which party can exist and which party cannot."

VLADIMIR A. RYZHKOV, a Russian democracy advocate and member of Parliament whose party has been banned.

What Poland will vote?

As Poland's tight election battle intensifies, the votes of some 850,000 Poles living in the UK could prove crucial. Opposition leader Donald Tusk (at left in picture) is challenging PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski (middle). Leftist Aleksander Kwasniewski (right) is also fighting the poll.

The BBC's Neil Arun asked Poles in London for their views.

"Kaczynski is clean, tough on crime and he respects the Catholic church."

"Kaczynski is an embarrassment. He's a backward man who has successfully manipulated the Polish people's fears and their Catholic faith."

"I’m voting for Kwasniewski. I don’t like what Kaczynski’s done to my country. He’s a very stupid man.

Again this nightmare, Katyn

Mass Graves, originalmente cargada por Stuck in Customs.

This is the site of the Katyn Massacre, where the Red Army executed over 20,000 Polish prisoners, many of whom were senior officers in the military that were captured in 1939. When Trey Ratcliff, author of this photo, went to Kharkov, Ukraine, his host drove him up to the Russian border where we visited these mass graves.

"Those who died at Katyn included an admiral, two generals, 24 colonels, 79 lieutenant colonels, 258 majors, 654 captains, 17 naval captains, 3,420 NCOs, seven chaplains, three landowners, a prince, 43 officials, 85 privates, and 131 refugees. Also among the dead were 20 university profesors; 300 physicians; several hundred lawyers, engineers, and teachers; and more than 100 writers and journalists as well as about 200 pilots. In all, the NKVD executed almost half the Polish officer corps. Altogether, during the massacre the NKVD murdered 14 Polish generals"

More info about Katyn in wikipedia

Putin: love him or leave him

Norman Stone, former Professor of Modern History at Oxford, is now head of the international relations department at Bilkent University in Ankara defends the Russian President and his legacy: "Vladimir Putin rescued Russia from disaster: so let’s just leave him be"

And then Boris bombed the Parlament

This week is the anniversary of the 1993 upheaval in Russia, when Boris Yeltsin order troops to storm parliament. Slate magazine shows it with images that worths a thousand words.

Prime Minister, President and... Prime minister (and then President in 2012?)

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday that he intends to run for parliament and suggested that he would then -who knows- become prime minister.

"I gratefully accept your offer," he told the 500 delegates to thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Asked by a delegate to govern the country as prime minister in 2008, Putin said it was a "realistic idea" under two conditions: an overwhelming victory by United Russia in the Dec. 2 elections and the selection of a "worthy candidate for the presidency" with whom he could cooperate. In his 20-minute introductory speech, Putin threw his support behind the pro-Kremlin party, praising its work and stressing that he had helped created it six years ago. "I not only supported the creation of the party in 2001, I was among its initiators," he said.

The european press decries this manipulation of democracy and wonders if it will really ensure stability.

The Financial Times writes:

"This plan is in stark contrast to the hierarchy of powers envisaged by the Russian constitution. It immediately raises the question of who will have the ultimate say in future: the newly elected president or his dynamic predecessor who is head of government."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"Power in Russia is looking for a new bottle, but it's still the same old wine ... One can interpret this solution as something positive. There had been some forecasts of a phase of instability after Putin left office, with an internal conflict between Putin pulling the strings in the background and the new president, even if he were there with Vladimir's blessing. If Putin becomes prime minister then this conflict will be avoided, and the power relations will be fixed for some time. But stability has a high price. The state, society and economy in Russia will become even more rigid."A society that is forced together by authoritarian centralism will inevitably develop countervailing forces again. Putin's stability is only borrowed and, therefore, won't last long."

Yes, we know from past experience that the selection of a successor in Russia depends most heavily on that person’s ability to shield his or her benefactors from investigations and prosecution for their alleged legal sins.

So The Guardian wrote:

Mr Putin's novel plan to continue as prime minister after his presidency ends next year is all but certain to be enacted. Power will simply flow to him in his new incarnation, according to Jörg Himmelreich, of the German Marshall Fund. "It's a smart step to stay in charge. Some people say it will make Russia more democratic by shifting power to the Duma [parliament]. Don't believe it. It's a good marketing move ... the new president, whoever that is, will dance to Putin's tune."

But Robert Amsterdam insists that we should never underestimate Moscow’s ability to sell the story they want told. In an effort to project this image of stability and strength, the Kremlin has resorted to instinct: more and more aggressive interference on international crisis issues like Iran, Kosovo, and Myanmar. Once again more doublespeak from Gazprom, promising to be good supplier to Europe while flexing political muscle on the Ukraine.

In other words, everything looks like business as usual over there.

Putin's approval rating is above 75 percent, meaning his association with United Russia would almost guarantee that the party would retain its two-thirds majority in the Duma -- and likely collect additional seats. Recent polls have indicated that United Russia was on course to secure 50 percent of the vote. Putin's much criticised restrictions on free media and free expression, and his crackdown on political dissent, do not seem to worry the mass of Russians.

The Kremlin website offers the remarks at the United Russia Party Congress.

Yanukovich wins, Tymoshenko will rule

The party of Ukraine's prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, has overtaken its main rival, the orange party of former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, to claim the largest share of the vote in the country's parliamentary election.But Tymoshenko is still expected to become the new prime minister at the head of an orange coalition with Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's pro-western president, whose Our Ukraine bloc has won 14.94% of the votes counted. Two exit polls had predicted that Mr Yanukovich's party would gain the largest share of the vote. He insisted today it would still form the next government. Yes, the Prime Minister was today reluctant to concede defeat. He said: "Nothing confirms the Orange forces' victory. There aren't official results yet and to draw conclusions on exit polls is irresponsible."

"Moscow now has little political capital in the Ukraine with the revived Orange coalition of Ms Tymoshenko and the President Viktor Yushchenko" said Tony Halpin, Moscow Correspondent of The Times.