Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 14.12.2006

Kerstin Holm and Michael Hanfeld asked the chess master Garry Kasparov to tell them what he would have said about Putin on the popular talkshow Christiansen last Sunday, had he not been DISINVITED again: for example that the Russian state systematically persecutes opposition groups. Most endangered are regime critics in the provinces. "'They have neither body guards nor contact with the international press,' says Kasparov. That's why the 'March of Dissidents' to take place this Saturday, the demonstration initiated by the united Russian opposition 'Drugaja Rossija' despite its prohibition by the Moscow authorities, is important as a signal to the rest of the country. To show the people in the regions that the Muscovites, notorious for their privilege, are willing to risk something."

A documentary series on the "rise of the great nations" is being shown on state-run Chinese television. Mark Siemons finds it very enlightening. "The perspective is no longer that of the proletariat or a colonised country, not the resentment of a subjugated class or culture but rather a power that wants to de-code history's building plan sine ira et studio before entering it itself. 'Learning from the West' means something different today than it did for the earlier reformers: learning from its mistakes and not just admiring it unconditionally." (Here a clip on YouTube and here an article from the International Herald Tribune on the series.)


Die Zeit 14.12.2006

Peter Kümmel has travelled to Brazil to talk to Frank Castorf and see his staging of a play by Nelson Rodrigues. "His staging of 'Black Angel' in Sao Paulo is pure Castorf. The director re-creates his Berlin ensemble out of the pool of foreign actors. He pokes Volksbühne voodoo needles into the obliging Brazilians. And in Berlin, Castorf's original actors are going to howl and rear up in pain: Martin Wuttke, Kathi Angerer, Milan Peschel and all the others. Castorf is such a powerful director, damned by his own stubbornness, that he turns whatever he lays his hands on into Castorf country."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 14.12.2006

Daniele Muscionico takes a look at how the troupe of photographers from Magnum is entering the 21st century. "The self-governing agency, made up of 60 of the world's most renowned photographers and photo-journalists, is abandoning its puristic exclusivity and the singular study of the image. On the one hand, Magnum wants to play a greater role in disseminating photography and is making its archives available to a broader public. On the other hand, the members are now presenting themselves online not just as the authors of their own features but also as directors, cutters and speakers (an particular treat: the voice of Elliot Erwitt) of their own multimedia essays. It's called Magnum In Motion, and there are already 30 reports to choose from, edited and commentated by their authors."


Die Welt 14.12.2006

Thomas Schmid writes a small homage to German President Horst Köhler, who makes no bones about taking his job seriously, much to the displeasure of those in government: "He constitutes a one-man contingent against the large group, comprising almost all parties and all strata, of those who feel that reforms should be unassuming and that freedom must make do with second place behind security in Germany. Once the stiff herald of a liberal-conservative shift, he has now become an undaunted lone-warrior on the side of grit and guts."


Berliner Zeitung 14.12.2006

Russian journalist and author Elena Tregubova (news story) has cancelled a reading tour to Germany and her German publishers, Tropen Verlag, have lost all contact with her. Christian Esch fears for her life, surmising her silence may have something to do with her bestseller "Tales of a Kremlin Digger" (not yet available in English, excerpt in German). "She has seen Putin from close up – even closer and earlier than others. For Russian readers, that gave her book its charm and explosive force: envisioning how in 1998 Vladimir Putin – then still head of the FSB or secret police – invited the beautiful journalist to celebrate the 'Day of the Chekists,' and how he had to wait for ages first of all for her to arrive at the cordoned off sushi restaurant, and then for a shoe service because she'd broken her heel. The flirt situation between 'Lenotshka' and 'Volodya' makes the future president a man like other men, even a rather uninteresting one, as Tregubova stated with the coldness of her sex: 'cheap back-courtyard charm', 'a normal intellect,' 'average Soviet education.' She is not impressed by his judo abilities, and finds him politically overrated."