A week before the elections in Serbia, Hungarian-Serbian writer Laszlo Vegel has the following to say about the country’s political landscape: “The politicians are again promising miracles. The democratic opposition is promising swift EU accession for Serbia. The extreme right opposition is promising to win back Kosovo. And the majority of the ruling parties under the Kostunica’s leadership is even claiming that there is no need to lift a finger to bring about these miracles, as they will take place quite naturally. Europe will soon realise its mistake. With the exception of a new, small liberal-democratic party, no one in Serbia is calling for the necessary to be done, which means giving up Kosovo, pushing through reforms, and moving in the direction of Europe.
Die Tageszeitung 15.01.2007
Boris Reitschuster, Moscow correspondent for the German weekly Focus magazine, is convinced the Russian secret service is behind the rising pressure to which he is being subjected as author of the book “Putin’s Democratorship“, reports Melanie Zehrahn. The page for his book on Amazon, for example, has become a battlefield in recent months. “Econ Publishers suspect that the readers’ comments are being sabotaged. ‘The reviews are not only similar in their aggressive tone, but also in their phrasing.’ One comment has already been removed by Econ, a political publishing company from Berlin. Under the pseudonym ‘German Lover’ one reviewer accused the author of being an unqualified liar and a ‘devil worshipper‘. Econ’s lawyer has condemned the comments as false statements and defamatory criticism amounting to a breach of Reitschuster’s personality rights. And Amazon has responded by removing the relevant passages.”