The Media Mirror: what's in today's Russian newspapers?

The Russian papers feature a look at Georgia – a new revolutionary situation or just a regular political game?, a review of 2007 by former Russian Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov and the revelation that both Zorro and 007 plan to vote for the Pu

VREMYA NOVOSTEI, back with us after the New Year holidays, writes a new pre-revolutionary situation is forming fast in Georgia. Another wave of street protests is beginning, this time calling for just one thing: a second round of the Presidential election.

The same newspaper publishes an interview with Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Foreign Minister of the USSR and ex-President of Georgia. He says the opposition opts for street protests as a means to promote the idea of a second round of the election. But the opposition is also firmly against unleashing a civil war. The veteran politician who turns 80 on January the 25th says the current situation in Georgia is not to be feared, everything goes within the limits of a democratic process.

IZVESTIA writes the magic transformation of Nino Burdjanadze from the Iron Lady of Georgia into a dove of peace may mean that in the second Saakashvili presidency this lady will be playing a key role as the President’s right hand in Parliament. The paper says, Burdjanadze has been assigned to form an absolutely new Centrist party tasked to win a majority for Saakashvili in the next Parliamentary election.

ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA has an article by Evgeny Primakov, former Prime minister who now heads the Chamber of Commerce of Russia. He writes: Politically the main result of the year 2007 was the landslide electoral victory of the United Russia party. “Pseudo-Liberal” forces were defeated. That ensured the end of the oligarchic period in Russian politics.

KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA reports on the new methods of raising voter activity and awareness employed by the Central Electoral Commission.

Billboards closely resembling posters of international movie classics and calling for participation in the Presidential election are to appear in the streets of Russian cities. Apart from the patriotism-boosting pictures of famous Russians who say something like “Our country – our President” or “I vote for the future” and finer print saying Don’t Miss the Presidential Election, now Zorro and 007 will help rally the Russian people behind Putin’s Plan.