Translated material
Leaving "Nadezhda"
Today the leaders of Russia and the European Union will hold negotiations at the Volzhsky Utes
The Nadezhda sanatorium, owned by OJSC Togliattiazot, took fourth place in the ranking of sanatoriums in Russia in 2006. This is proudly stated in the advertising booklet. Here, on the shore of the Zhiguli reservoir, 100 km from Samara, in a sanatorium where, judging by the booklet, they treat all diseases known in the world, Russian and foreign journalists accredited for the Samara Russia-European Union summit were accommodated.Treatment at Nadezhda is apparently useful. But covering the summit or related events is difficult. Foreigners, as one might expect, were interested in the “March of Dissent” in Samara dedicated to the summit. But its organizers foresaw everything correctly and, for example, that yesterday in Samara an associate of Garry Kasparov was detained with counterfeit, according to the police, thousand-dollar bills, journalists could only find out by phone from Moscow. In a word, if you want to go to the “March of Dissent”, come to Samara . And if you need to cover the summit, then go to Tolyati, to Nadezhda, from where today you will be taken by boat along the reservoir to the Volzhsky Utes sanatorium, where the leaders of Russia and the European Union are meeting.
There are few of them this time: European Commission Chairman Jose Manuel Barroso, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. This “magnificent four” met yesterday informally at the “Burlatsky Shelter” tavern, next to the “Volga Cliff” - the famous pianist Denis Matsuev played for them there, and amateur Russian and German ensembles performed folk songs. Most journalists were also only able to find out about this meeting on TV from Moscow. However, at the current summit there is generally little information available. There are no briefings, no press releases, and newsmakers do not appear among the journalists, as is usually the case at such events.
And the smiles that could be seen on TV on the faces of European and Russian leaders cannot replace this information - everyone understands that this is just a tribute to diplomatic protocol.
It is obvious to the journalistic corps that the Samara summit today will only record the lowest level of relations between Russia and a united Europe since the beginning of this century. However, the Russian President has at least two more EU-Russia summits before the end of his term. The closest one is this fall in Portugal, which will lead the EU in the second half of this year. And if European partners meet Moscow halfway, then Vladimir Putin will leave his office in the Kremlin in an atmosphere of Russian-European reconciliation.