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THE GUARDIAN
17 September 2008
"The EU has started asking - can we not mimic the
more muscular and unified approach of China and Russia
[in negotiating with external energy suppliers],"
said Katinka Barysch of the CER. "Bilateral
agreements have given too much power to Gazprom,"
she said of deals between individual EU member-states
and Russia's state-owned energy giant.
NEWSWEEK
13 September 2008
He [Miliband] is also "very popular" with
other EU foreign ministers, says Charles Grant of the
CER. "He isn't rude, he isn't arrogant,
and he doesn't grandstand." Indeed it is the prevailing
view among the foreign-policy elite that Miliband's
Kiev speech was less grandstanding than a recognition
that how the EU responds to Russia now will define relations
for a generation.
RUSSIA
PROFILE
12 September 2008
"Maybe Russia had to do what it did in Georgia,
but it really should not speak about it in such a loud,
abrasive voice," said Bobo Lo of the CER.
"Because of this, people in the West get the feeling
that we are dealing with an aggressive, confrontational
Russia. In fact, it gives a misleading impression about
Russia."
THE
DAILY TELEGRAPH
5 September 2008
The most consistently successful of the various [think-tank]
groups have been those not associated with any political
movement. ...The CER has done well over the years,
and has cleverly broadened its brief to include Russia
and China. [It] knows how to project itself in the 24/7
media.
TIME
4 September 2008
The Polish consulate in London estimates a 15 per cent
drop in new arrivals compared to last year, and expects
about 300,000 to 400,000 Poles to remain in Britain
- still a huge number to have settled in just a few
years. "A lot of these migrants were not coming
to build a new life," says Philip Whyte of the
CER. "Many were over skilled relative to
the jobs they were carrying out in the UK. They were
coming to get a financial leg-up [back home]."
FINANCIAL
TIMES
29 August 2008
Bobo Lo of the CER said: "China does not
want the SCO to become an anti- NATO bloc. It wants
to use it for multilateral co-operation in the region.
Russia has no mates. It's more isolated than it has
been for 20 years."
THE
GUARDIAN
22 August 2008
Vladimir Putin's throttling of Georgia, say analysts
and diplomats, presents big risks and big opportunities.
"The era of Russian weakness is over. We're now
in a much more competitive relationship with Russia,
and Georgia has put European security back on the geopolitical
map, also for the US. All that could mean a rejuvenation
of NATO," said Tomas Valasek of the CER.
THE
INDEPENDENT
20 August 2008
Today we need a containment and co-operation policy
with Russia. As Charles Grant of the CER points
out [in a recent Guardian blog], Russia is weaker than
Putin's rhetoric implies. It has an unhealthy, shrinking
population the size of Bangladesh and a GDP per capita
lower than Equatorial Guinea.
BUSINESS
WEEK
11 August 2008
But Russia's willingness to use force to pursue its
interests will certainly give companies pause about
investing there in the future. And it will give impetus
to efforts by European countries to become less dependent
on Russian energy. "The main problem for Russia
is that investor perception, which was already low,
will deteriorate even further," says Katinka Barysch
of the CER.
REUTERS
11 August 2008
Charles Grant and Katinka Barysch of London's CER
say the EU and China should help shape a new multipolar
world order by focusing on the key priorities of climate
change, nuclear non-proliferation and Africa. But with
no current means to reconcile conflicting EU priorities,
such a strategically defined policy seems unlikely any
time soon.
THE
INDEPENDENT
8 August 2008
Tomas Valasek of the CER said Saakashvili had
little choice but to take decisive action. He said Russia's
growing influence in South Ossetia and in another breakaway
region, Abkhazia, was steadily undermining Georgia's
hopes of joining the NATO military alliance and putting
itself firmly in the western camp. "At the end
of the day the Georgians realise that time is not on
their side and they could not let South Ossetia and
Abkhazia become even more messy and Russian influence
even stronger," Valasek said.
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