Information summary of the week, 2

**English tolerance requires sacrifices**

In the case of London, human and large. Terrorism continues its march across Europe, leaving bloody traces on the streets of capital cities and in their underground transport arteries.
The topics that were supposed to be the main ones this week - the Olympic elections and the G8 summit - for the media turned into only accompanying coverage of the terrorist attacks that occurred on July 7 in the UK.
Of course, most publications link all the above-mentioned events, considering them links in one chain. It’s a very good information opportunity for terrorists not to use it at the right time in the right place and show who’s boss. Everything coincided in one United Kingdom - and the leaders of the G8 (as the G8 countries are coded) came together, and London was chosen as the capital of the 2012 Olympics. As they say, Allah himself ordered to spoil the holiday for non-believers.
But, as you know, there are no reasons without reasons. The media, claiming to be authoritative, identified them quite easily. Firstly, this is Britain's active participation in the war with Iraq and its passionate political support for almost all actions of Washington, which for some reason is so disliked by Islamic fundamentalists.
Although, on the other hand, these same fundamentalists, in theory, should not hate Foggy Albion. This is where, according to many experts, lies the second reason. The so-called policy of double standards is described very vividly and intelligibly by journalists. It is no secret that England has long become a refuge for individuals and organizations holding high the green banner of Islam, fighting for self-determination, independence and God knows what else. The main thing is that this fight with weapons and explosives in the subway and at bus stops is being waged far beyond the borders of the Kingdom. And then they - other countries, including Russia, are themselves to blame: some are strangling Chechen freedom, others are strangling revolutionary democracy, but we are saving Iraq from bandits. Feel the difference. Now, according to newspaper analysts, this difference may disappear. Their conclusions are similar - one should not be surprised at the explosions if the level of tolerance towards the sons of the peoples of the East goes off scale to a calm reaction to open calls for jihad heard in London mosques to thousands of Muslims.
By registering Akhmed Zakayev as a political refugee, turning a blind eye to the numerous funds whose money is spent on training militants and other simple needs of extremists, official London, according to most publications, apparently hoped that radicals from Islam would not “cut the branch on which they sit.” . Alas. The British were cruelly reminded that they were just as much “crusaders” as the entire European community. A real martyr doesn’t care at all which European citizens’ deaths will be his ticket to heaven.
It is obvious to almost all print media that the British leadership will learn lessons from the bloody London events of June 7th. It’s just a pity that these lessons are again illustrated for politicians by dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded ordinary, innocent people.

**One board, two boards - there will be a ladder... On the issue of creating two factions of "Motherland"**

The event that took place in the State Duma last week (the split of Rodina into the factions of Dmitry Rogozin and Sergei Baburin) attracted increased attention from the federal media to the pre-holiday activities of parliamentarians. While journalists focused on the past, clearly seeing in this “faction building” the result of the activities of the Presidential Administration, the deputies focused on the future, excitedly discussing its consequences.
The attempts of the two Rodina leaders to show the ideological and political background of their differences, which led to the impossibility of parliamentary work within a single faction, did not convince any of the observers. Journalists were more inclined to believe the practice that had developed in the State Duma of an overly benevolent and attentive attitude to recommendations from the presidential administration than explanations to parliamentarians who had already repeatedly demonstrated political omnivorousness. Particularly symptomatic was the super-operative registration of new deputy formations by the State Duma bureaucracy - within a few days all the necessary procedures were completed and in the ruins the Rodina faction of D. Rogozin was preserved and the People's Patriotic Union Rodina faction appeared.
Remembering that the earlier split in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction did not lead to the formation of a new faction, many began to ask themselves the question: will the process of fragmentation stop in “Rodina” and in “Rodina”? Great concern is caused by the state of affairs in S. Baburin’s Rodina-2, a member of which is the leader of the Socialist United Party of Russia Vasily Shestakov, who has the formal right to form his own faction in the Duma on the basis of the adopted amendment: its basis can be his party, which was a bloc-forming party during 2003 elections. The absence of a numerical “threshold” also provokes deputies into factional construction.
Some journalists have the opinion that it was this faction that “usurped” the image of the infante terrible of the State Duma, which previously belonged to the LDPR. It is no coincidence that liberal democrats welcomed the disengagement that took place in it, suggesting that the result would be the discrediting of this political force. However, the images of Dmitry Rogozin and Sergei Baburin cannot be compared with the charisma of Vladimir Zhirinovsky: neither of the first two has yet demonstrated the ability to “melt” scandal into electoral support sufficient to become a long-term parliamentary regular. They have always been a “trailer” to some popular politician-“locomotive” who pulled out the election campaign on his shoulders - during the last elections this was Sergei Glazyev.
Trying to find the reason for the split in Rodina, a number of political scientists suggested that in this way the Kremlin curators of United Russia demonstrated to the country's political elite that it was United Russia that would become the favorite of the authorities in the upcoming parliamentary elections of 2007. These political scientists believe that disavowing the claims of any Rodin group on the image of the party in power can have a profound impact on their prospects of being elected to the future State Duma.
The viability of the “bifurcated” “Motherland” can be judged no earlier than the fall-winter of this year: the creation of a new faction of S. Baburin, concerned with attracting new members to its composition, took place on the last day of the spring session of the State Duma, and the “Rogozins”, having refused sole leader and introducing the posts of co-chairs, transferred leadership for the duration of the autumn session to S. Glazyev. The future will show whether these steps were adequate to the emerging challenges...

**Rights or obligations, money or powers**

Events related to the anniversary of the ancient Russian city of Kaliningrad were on the front pages of newspapers and information sites at the beginning of last week. Of course, it’s great that Kant’s birthplace and the coronation center of the Prussian kings celebrated its 750th anniversary on a grand scale and beautifully. The 1100th anniversary of Pskov in 2003 did not receive even half of the honorary visitors.
The media mainly discussed the next redistribution of powers between the federal center and the regions, which was announced by President Putin during a visiting meeting of the State Council dedicated to the anniversary. This time the magic numbers are 114 and 40. 114 powers are returned to the regions, supported by 40 billion rubles allocated for implementation.
Along with the large-scale transformation of the LSG system, which is coming from 2006, this gesture of the federal center should be perceived as another attempt to optimize our “columnar” (Salmin) federation.
It seems that everyone has already stopped talking about the differences in the weight of regions (republics, territories, regions, districts); in the face of the vertical, they are almost equal. And now part of the sovereignty, under the strict gaze of Moscow, is returning to its place. Where there will be a groan already in 2006 - closing the holes in regional budgets, the federal government is sending petitioners from local governments there. And the fact that there will be a real shortage of money (personnel) there, experts say, is beyond doubt.
Well, optimization is not painless. There is only one problem - optimization is, first of all, simplifying and increasing the transparency of the management system while increasing efficiency. Whether these activities contribute to this, according to the press, is a big question...
Likewise, in the country of victorious socialism, it was once believed that the market and commodity-money relations themselves would put everything in its place. We woke up in the market, were worried in the morning, and by the evening, they say, everything was fine... It didn’t work out. There was too much behind every enterprise, every economic entity, individual - too much “history”. You cannot force a tank factory to repurpose itself into producing pots in a day.
The market has not added transparency to the media itself. It's no secret that most of the so-called. business newspapers are unprofitable, and journalists from any media know well what a “kickback”, “jeans”, etc. means. Newspaper owners who want to make a profit understand that this can only be done by publishing a tabloid. There is no market as such - discussions on the sales of Izvestia and REN-TV took place last week under the auspices of discussions about who will support these media outlets, and how the power vertical found such partners...
It is probably impossible to create a well-functioning and financially strong system of local governments in a year. But telling governors that regional budgets are filled by the federation, that they have enough powers not to say that all decisions are made in Moscow, is still not enough. Few in the face of a real threat of failure of LSG reform.