It's Been WET in Washington, DC

From today's Washington Post:

The rainfall drenching the Washington region has been a once-in-200-years event, and numerous and destructive flash floods have raced down area creeks and streams. But flooding on the Potomac River is not expected to even approach that of major deluges of the past, forecasters said yesterday.

J. Peter Mulhern on George Bush's Problem

From The American Thinker:

Nearly five years into the Global War on Terror we have destroyed one terrorist hideout in Afghanistan and conquered one major terror sponsoring country. George W. Bush seems content to stop there. Not even the imminent prospect of mad Mullahs with nukes seems capable of shaking him out of his strategic torpor. He has lost the initiative both at home and abroad.

We are stalled, our enemies are gearing up and the American people have noticed. This is the most important reason President Bush has been caught in the political doldrums lately.

Even the dramatic success of eliminating Abu Musab al Zarqawi and rolling up his network won’t address the President’s problem. In fact, as our success in Iraq gets more obvious, our paralysis on every other front will get more embarrassing. Hard slogging in Iraq is a convenient excuse for our lack of ambition elsewhere. That excuse won’t work for the President much longer.

George W. Bush tried to fight a war that even the conventional left could love. Predictably, he satisfied almost nobody. The next time Republicans go to the well to select a leader for the nation they need to find somebody with the independence of mind, and the courage, to give the editorial page of the New York Times precisely the attention it deserves. This is the essential prerequisite for both political success and successful policy.

The next Republican presidential nominee will probably have to craft our response to the next major Muslim strike on our homeland. For better or worse, Republicans are stuck with the burdens of power because the Democrats are stuck on stupid trying to win American elections as the anti-American party. This leaves Republican primary voters with a grave responsibility.

Which reminds me of the question, where is R-U-D-Y G-I-U-L-I-A-N-I when we need him?

Agustin Blazquez v. London's Victoria and Albert Museum

VICTORIA & ALBERT ARE SPINNING IN THEIR GRAVES © 2006 ABIP
by Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton

Apparently the need for hard currency by the Castro regime – since the greedy tyrant doesn’t want to use the millions he has in Swiss banks – is such that Che merchandising worldwide is among his best bets. Unfortunately there are so many uninformed fools in the world.

A recent victim of the avalanche of Castro propaganda is nothing less than the reputable London Museum of Victoria & Albert.

The museum administration is proudly advertising the exhibit “Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon.” You can get the gist of the worldwide Che propaganda and misinformation by checking out this link.

It is funny and pathetic for a reputable British museum to exhibit that junk and to contribute to Castro’s efforts to keep the public misinformed by providing that masquerade of an icon concocted by the longest reigning tyrant in the world.

I wonder how Jews of the world would react to the image of Hitler being made into a “pop celebrity and symbol of fashion’s fascination with the radical chic.” And would Hitler’s “iconic image” have “inspired art, fashion and culture for the past 45 years and is recognizable even in its most simplified form,” as the Victoria & Albert Museum refer to Che in their announcement.

Walking the streets with a Che t-shirt, or a pair of pants, or a jacket or whatever trashy merchandise is put out in the shops of the world is as insulting to Cubans as the likeness of Hitler is to Holocaust victims and their families.

Che was Castro’s executioner.

Che wrote in his diary how much he enjoyed seeing the blood and brain parts of his victims scattered on Cuban soil.

This is conveniently ignored by the Hollywood bozos like Robert Redford in his film “The Motorcycle Diaries,” thus contributing further to idealize this criminal who is nothing less than a disgusting Nazi mass murderer and a subhuman like Charles Manson, David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, though on a much larger scale.

Why would anyone want to make scum like Che into a fashion symbol? What reputable museum would proudly advertise and contribute to an “icon” like this?

I wrote to the Victoria & Albert Press Office, “I learned that the Victoria & Albert Museum is going to have an exhibit about Ernesto "Che" Guevara. For your information - below my note - is my article about the real "Che"-- http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org/oagaq119.php or http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/agustin-blazquez-22.htm . Before a museum as reputable as yours presents an exhibit, you should know your subject well. Apparently you do not. What credibility will your exhibit have?”

Promptly, I received the following reply, “Thank you for your email about the Che Guevara exhibition. Your comments have been noted and passed to the Director of Public Affairs.”

However, I have learned in the U.S. not to expect anything but insensitivity for Che’s and Castro’s victims because most Americans are highly misinformed by the U.S. media and Marxist professors at their learning centers. Apparently the British suffers from the same misinformation problems. So probably this is one more lost cause for people on earth who value truth over propaganda. Of all the pop icons of the world to choose from, they pick a vulgar, mass murderer.

Meanwhile, Victoria & Albert, from heaven, where they have access to the truth, know that this exhibit does not belong in a museum.

© 2006 ABIP
Agustin Blazquez, Producer/director of the documentaries
COVERING CUBA, premiered at the American Film Institute in 1995, CUBA: The Pearl of the Antilles, COVERING CUBA 2: The Next Generation, premiered in 2001 at the U.S. Capitol in and at the 2001 Miami International Book Fair COVERING CUBA 3: Elian presented at the 2003 Miami Latin Film Festival, the 2004 American Film Renaissance Film Festival in Dallas, Texas and the 2006 Palm Beach International Film Festival, COVERING CUBA 4: The Rats Below, premiered at the Tower Theaters in Miami on January 2006 and the 2006 Palm Beach International Film Festival, Dan Rather "60 Minutes," an inside view and RUMBERAS CUBANAS, Vol. 1 MARIA ANTONIETA PONS

ALL AVAILABLE AT: http://www.cubacollectibles.com/cuba_C.mvc?p=108-CC4
For previews visit: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Agustin+Blazquez

Author of more that 300 published articles and author with Carlos Wotzkow of the book COVERING AND DISCOVERING and translator with Jaums Sutton of the book by Luis Grave de Peralta Morell THE MAFIA OF HAVANA: The Cuban Cosa Nostra.

Daniel Pipes on Pew's Muslim Opinion Poll

Daniel Pipes says he's not surpised by findings of a recent Pew poll. An excerpt:

Support for terrorism: All the Muslim populations polled display a solid majority [editor's note: actually minority] of support for Osama bin Laden. Asked whether they have confidence in him, Muslims replied positively, ranging between 8% (in Turkey) and 72% (in Nigeria). Likewise, suicide bombing is popular. Muslims who call it justified range from 13% (in Germany) to 69% (in Nigeria). These appalling numbers suggest that terrorism by Muslims has deep roots and will remain a danger for years to come.

British and Nigerian Muslims are most alienated: Britain stands out as a paradoxical country. Non-Muslims there have strikingly more favorable views of Islam and Muslims than elsewhere in the West; for example, only 32% of the British sample view Muslims as violent, significantly less than their counterparts in France (41%), Germany (52%), or Spain (60%). In the Muhammad cartoon dispute, Britons showed more sympathy for the Muslim outlook than did other Europeans. More broadly, Britons blame Muslims less for the poor state of Western-Muslim relations.

But British Muslims return the favor with the most malign anti-Western attitudes found in Europe. Many more of them regard Westerners as violent, greedy, immoral, and arogant than do their counterparts in France, Germany, and Spain. In addition, whether asked about their attitudes toward Jews, responsibility for September 11, or the place of women in Western societies, their views are notably more extreme.

The situation in Britain reflects the "Londonistan" phenomenon, whereby Britons preemptively cringe and Muslims respond to this weakness with aggression.

Nigerian Muslims generally have the most belligerent views on such issues as the state of Western-Muslim relations, the supposed immorality and arrogance of Westerners, and support for Mr. bin Laden and suicide terrorism. This extremism results, no doubt, from the violent state of Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria.

Ironically, most Muslim alienation is found in those countries where Muslims are either the most or the least accommodated, suggesting that a middle path is best - where Muslims do not win special privileges, as in Britain, nor are they in an advanced state of hostility, as in Nigeria.

Overall, the Pew survey sends an undeniable message of crisis from one end to the other of the Muslim world.

Moonlight Hotel by Scott Anderson

Having just spent 10 days on vacation, I recommendScott Anderson's novel, Moonlight Hotel, as good beach reading for those interested in international affairs. It seems to be based on his real-life work as a war correspondent, and while it has a Hollywood ending, the rest is very realistic, especially the State Department correspondence...

Israel's French Connection

It would be nice if terrible events such as this might lead to reconstituting the alliance that won World War II-- a real allliance, made up of UN Security Council permanent members, instead of the present pathetic "coalition of the willing" led by an unresponsive "unipolar" USA. IMHO, an equal partnership with Russia and China could defeat the Islamists quickly and decisively. Right now, Islamists appear to be cleverly playing "divide and conquer", using the Euro-Atlantic alliance as both a wedge against Russia and China, and a tail to wag the American dog. From Haaretz:

Kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit has dual French-Israeli citizenship and officials in Paris have been working since his abduction on Sunday to secure his release from Gaza gunmen.

Corporal Gilad Shalit was a member of the crew of a tank stationed just outside the border of Gaza, when gunmen from Hamas and other armed groups attacked their IDF position early Sunday morning.

Two members of the tank crew were killed, a third seriously wounded, and Gilad, also wounded, was taken captive and brought across the border into the Gaza Strip.

Shalit's father was born in France and he therefore holds French citizenship.

Yael Avran, spokeswoman for the French Embassy in Tel Aviv, said diplomats are "fully active in order to liberate the soldier." She said French officials in Paris were in touch with Palestinian officials, and the French ambassador planned to meet with the Shalit family, later in the day.

Al Qaeda Kills Russians in Iraq

This recent beheading snuff film is evidence that for the Al Qaeda types, the US and Russia present two faces of the same enemy. From an AP account on Yahoo! News:

CAIRO, Egypt - An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web video Sunday showing the killings of three Russian embassy workers abducted earlier this month in Iraq. A fourth also was said to have been killed.

An accompanying statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization linking seven insurgent groups including al-Qaida in Iraq, said all four Russians had been killed. Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had not yet confirmed the hostages' deaths.

The 90-second video, posted on an Islamic Web site that frequently airs militant messages, showed the beheading of two blindfolded men and the shooting of a third.

In the footage, two men clad in black and wearing black ski masks shout "God is great!" before beheading the first man. Then one militant appears standing over the decapitated body of a second victim lying in a pool of blood, with the head placed on top of the body.

Why the US government is so hostile towards Russia at this moment, when we need all the allies we can get in the Global War on Terror, is beyond me...

NGOs v Israel

Here's an interesting powerpoint presentation from an Israeli conference entitled Ethical Norms in a Political World:
NGOs, Human Rights and the Arab-Israeli Conflicts, entitledInternational legal terminology, politics and human rights.Dr. Avi Bell, who teaches law at Bar Ilan University, argues that many NGO reports critical of Israel actually misrepresent international law in order to attack the Jewish state. Readers of the reports, especially journalists, may be unaware that the report contain lies and misrepresentations--and that authors of such reports by groups like Amnesty International actually state that they do not believe that the term "terrorism" should be used, refusing to use it themselves...

Mark Steyn on Ann Coulter

He reviewed her latest book for Canada's McLean's Magazine:

There are any number of 9/11 widows. A few are big George W. Bush supporters, many are apolitical. I was honoured to receive an email the other day from Deena Gilbey, a British subject whose late husband worked on the 84th floor of the World Trade Center and remained in the building to help evacuate his colleagues. A few days later, U.S. Immigration sent Mrs. Gilbey a letter informing her that, as she was now a widow, her residence status had changed and they were enclosing a deportation order. Having legally admitted to the country the men who killed her husband, the U.S. government's first act after having enabled his murder is to further traumatize the bereaved.

The heartless brain-dead bonehead penpusher who sent out that letter is far more "mean-spirited" than Miss Coulter at full throttle. Yet Mrs. Gilbey isn't courted by the TV bookers the way the Jersey Girls are. Hundreds of soldiers' moms believe their sons died in a noble and just cause in Iraq, but it's Cindy Sheehan, who calls Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world," who gets speaking engagements across America, Canada, Britain, Europe and Australia. When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi winds up pushing up daisy cutters, the media don't go to Paul Bigley, who rejoiced that the man who decapitated his brother would now "rot in hell," nor the splendid Aussie Douglas Wood, who called his kidnappers "arseholes," nor his fellow hostage Ulf Hjertstrom, a Swede who's invested 50,000 bucks or so in trying to track down the men who kidnapped him and visit a little reciprocal justice on them. No, instead, the media rush to get the reaction of Michael Berg, who thinks Bush is "the real terrorist" rather than the man who beheaded his son....

...After the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, I wrote:

"The first reaction of the news shows to the verdict was to book some relative of the 9/11 families and ask whether they were satisfied with the result, as if the prosecution of the war on terror is some kind of national-security Megan's Law on which they have inviolable proprietorial rights. Sorry, but that's not what happened that Tuesday morning. The thousands who died were not targeted as individuals: they were killed because they were American, not because somebody in a cave far away decided to murder Mrs. Smith. . . It's not about 'closure' for the victims; it's about victory for the nation."

But nobody paid the slightest heed to this line. For all the impact my column had, I might as well have done house calls. Then Coulter comes in and yuks it up with the Playboy-spread gags, and suddenly the Jersey Girls only want to do the super-extra-fluffy puffball interviews. So two paragraphs in Ann Coulter's book have succeeded in repositioning these ladies: they may still be effective Democrat hackettes, but I think TV shows will have a harder time passing them off as non-partisan representatives of the 9/11 dead.

So, on balance, hooray for Miss Coulter. If I were to go all sanctimonious and priggish, I might add that, in rendering their "human shield" strategy more problematic, she may be doing Democrats a favour. There's no evidence the American people fall for this shtick: in 2002, the party's star Senate candidates all ran on biography -- Max Cleland, Jean Carnahan (the widow of a deceased governor), and Walter Mondale (the old lion pressed into service after Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash). All lost. Using "messengers whom we're not allowed to reply to" doesn't solve the Democrats' biggest problem: their message. The Dems, says the author, have "become the 'Lifetime' TV network of political parties." But, except within the Democrat-media self-reinforcing cocoon, it's not that popular. A political party with a statistically improbable reliance on the bereaved shouldn't be surprised that it spends a lot of time in mourning -- especially on Wednesday mornings every other November.

Taras Bulba

Last night, watched this 1960s Cinemascope extravaganza starring Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis as Ukrainian Cossacks fighting the Poles during the 18th Century. Not the best picture ever made--but interesting, especially the father-son story, which ends tragically...and in the aftermath of the "Orange Revolution"...and how many Hollywood screenplays are based on a story by Nikolai Gogol, anyhow? Here's an excerpt from the online text:

"Turn round, my boy! How ridiculous you look! What sort of a priest's cassock have you got on? Does everybody at the academy dress like that?"

With such words did old Bulba greet his two sons, who had been absent for their education at the Royal Seminary of Kief, and had now returned home to their father.

His sons had but just dismounted from their horses. They were a couple of stout lads who still looked bashful, as became youths recently released from the seminary. Their firm healthy faces were covered with the first down of manhood, down which had, as yet, never known a razor. They were greatly discomfited by such a reception from their father, and stood motionless with eyes fixed upon the ground.

"Stand still, stand still! let me have a good look at you," he continued, turning them around. "How long your gaberdines are! What gaberdines! There never were such gaberdines in the world before. Just run, one of you! I want to see whether you will not get entangled in the skirts, and fall down."

"Don't laugh, don't laugh, father!" said the eldest lad at length.

"How touchy we are! Why shouldn't I laugh?"

"Because, although you are my father, if you laugh, by heavens, I will strike you!"

"What kind of son are you? what, strike your father!" exclaimed Taras Bulba, retreating several paces in amazement.

"Yes, even my father. I don't stop to consider persons when an insult is in question."

"So you want to fight me? with your fist, eh?"

"Any way."

"Well, let it be fisticuffs," said Taras Bulba, turning up his sleeves. "I'll see what sort of a man you are with your fists."

And father and son, in lieu of a pleasant greeting after long separation, began to deal each other heavy blows on ribs, back, and chest, now retreating and looking at each other, now attacking afresh.

"Look, good people! the old man has gone man! he has lost his senses completely!" screamed their pale, ugly, kindly mother, who was standing on the threshold, and had not yet succeeded in embracing her darling children. "The children have come home, we have not seen them for over a year; and now he has taken some strange freak--he's pommelling them."

"Yes, he fights well," said Bulba, pausing; "well, by heavens!" he continued, rather as if excusing himself, "although he has never tried his hand at it before, he will make a good Cossack! Now, welcome, son! embrace me," and father and son began to kiss each other. "Good lad! see that you hit every one as you pommelled me; don't let any one escape. Nevertheless your clothes are ridiculous all the same. What rope is this hanging there?--And you, you lout, why are you standing there with your hands hanging beside you?" he added, turning to the youngest. "Why don't you fight me? you son of a dog!"

"What an idea!" said the mother, who had managed in the meantime to embrace her youngest. "Who ever heard of children fighting their own father? That's enough for the present; the child is young, he has had a long journey, he is tired." The child was over twenty, and about six feet high. "He ought to rest, and eat something; and you set him to fighting!"

"You are a gabbler!" said Bulba. "Don't listen to your mother, my lad; she is a woman, and knows nothing. What sort of petting do you need? A clear field and a good horse, that's the kind of petting for you! And do you see this sword? that's your mother! All the rest people stuff your heads with is rubbish; the academy, books, primers, philosophy, and all that, I spit upon it all!" Here Bulba added a word which is not used in print. "But I'll tell you what is best: I'll take you to Zaporozhe[1] this very week. That's where there's science for you! There's your school; there alone will you gain sense."

Consider adding Taras Bulba to your Netflix list, or you can buy it from Amazon.com, here:

Hoekstra and Santorum's Declassified Iraq WMD Memo

Via Powerline (ht Roger L. Simon):

On Vacation

Posting will be erratic for the next couple of weeks.

The Official 2006 World Cup Website

Todays' score: Germany 4, Costa Rica 2

Tomorrow: Paraguay v. England

You can watch match highlights here.

A Russian View of American Foreign Policy

Sergei Karaganov has a long article that analyzes Bush administration moves, in Russia in Global Affairs.A sample:

American democratic idealism should not be underestimated, nor should we judge American leadership by those who have lost faith. Such a temptation is fraught with costly mistakes.

Another important subject of the president’s message is the declaration of war – I believe, for the first time ever – on Islamic radicalism. All the right words about respect for the great and proud Islamic civilization were spoken. But it was also said that the fight against most militant and billigerent form of Islamic radicalism is the greatest ideological conflict at the beginning of the 21st century; that all great powers have joined forces on counterterrorism; and that this situation drastically differs from the 20th century, when the great powers were divided by ideology and national interests.

Bush stated what many were thinking about but did not dare say aloud. Now it will be more difficult for Russia to ignore this reality, especially since we were the first to take up arms and, having paid a terrible price, won the battle – not yet the war – in Chechnya against this most militant and belligerent form of Islamic radicalism and terrorism.

Yet, by their ill-judged intervention in Iraq the Americans have made this struggle far more difficult for everyone.

Russia’s unique history and geography, as well as many of its partners, are responsible for pushing it onto the battlefield of this new confrontation. Now we are faced with the extremely difficult task of avoiding this fate to the maximum degree possible.

Predictably, Iran – said to be the evil of all evils, overflowing with tyranny, Muslim radicalism, terrorism, and the proliferation of WMD – was declared America’s number one enemy. It looks like the United States has abandoned its attempts (at least for the next two years) to convince Tehran to mend its ways, and will now rely on mostly coercion to achieve its goals. This will not frighten Iranian radicals, but it will certainly drive Iranian reformers into a corner. It would be wiser to fight Tehran’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons rather than fight the Iranian leadership.

Polish Radio: Zarkawi Death Won't End Iraq War

Polskie Radio says to hold off on victory celebrations:

‘The killing of Al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will not speed up the normalisation of the situation In Iraq’, claims Marcin Grodzki, Polish expert in Arabic studies. Zarkawi, blamed for the death of hundreds in suicide bombings, was killed in a raid north of Baghdad earlier today.

‘Al Qaeda was prepared for such a course of events and their leader’s death may lead to more violence’, Grodzki says. Profesor Janusz Danecki of the Warsaw University agrees that Al Qaeda may now undertake revenge actions on Americans.

Michelle Malkin Vents About the Jihadis Among Us

You can watch the video here.

End of an Era at Oxford

St. Hilda's College, Oxford University's last remaining women's college, has finally decided to admit men... (ht Inside Higher Ed's Quick Takes)

NY Times: US Policies Lost Somalia

A very interesting story in the New York Times today containted this complaint against the US, from Somalia's interim president:

The United Nations report also cited what it called clandestine support for a so-called antiterrorist coalition, in what appeared to be a reference to the American policy. Somalia's interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf, first criticized American support for Mogadishu's warlords in early May during a trip to Sweden.

"We really oppose American aid that goes outside the government," he said, arguing that the best way to hunt members of Al Qaeda in Somalia was to strengthen the country's government.

EU Aided CIA Torture Flights

The BBC is reporting that fourteen European Union countries helped the CIA with torture flights to secret prisons in Poland and Romania, according to a Swiss report.

The new report says: "It is now clear - although we are still far from having established the truth - that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities.

"Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know."

Spain, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus provided "staging posts" for rendition operations, while the UK, Portugal, Ireland and Greece were "stop-off points", the report says.

It says Italy, Sweden, Macedonia and Bosnia allowed the abduction of residents from their soil.

The most serious charges are levelled at Poland and Romania, where Mr Marty says there is enough evidence to support suspicions that CIA secret prisons were established.

Although the Swiss senator says the US must bear responsibility for the flights, he says the programme could operate only with "the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of the European partners".

The "spider's web" of US rendition flights is based on an "utterly alien" approach that breaches human rights, he concludes.

Henry Kissinger's Moscow Press Conference

Today's newspaper coverage didn't make clear what Henry Kissinger had to say about his meeting yesterday in Moscow with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Luckily, the Kremlin put up an English-language transcript of the Q & A with the Russian press corps, so here it is:

QUESTION: Today many people are talking about Russian-American relations. What do you think is necessary to improve the two countries’ relations? Do you consider that Vice President Richard Cheney’s famous speech damaged relations?

FORMER U. S. SECREATARY OF STATE HENRY KISSINGER (back translation from Russian): First of all I would like to say that I am leaving Russia with a very positive feeling. President Putin and I just had a very friendly, warm meeting. My impression as I leave this country is that there are very significant opportunities for Russian-American cooperation and that next month, when the American and Russian presidents meet, progress will be made in many areas. I think that already in the near future we will be able to talk about the positive state of our relations.

I also think that we are adult enough to understand that that we can differ on certain issues. But our differences of opinion must not stand in the way of our efforts to achieve progress in international relations as a whole and in relations between our two countries. And the cooperation that we saw concerning Iran can, undoubtedly, be expanded into other areas.

QUESTION: Russia is now preparing for the G8 summit and do you think that the fact that Russia is a member of the G8 and holds the G8 presidency represents a victory for the international community? Or do you have some concerns regarding this issue?

HENRY KISSINGER: No, I don’t have any concerns regarding this issue. Russia fully deserves its G8 membership. Decisions that are taken by the G8 would not be possible without Russia’s participation.

QUESTION: What do you think about the fact that certain people express their concern regarding the condition of democracy in Russia?

HENRY KISSINGER: One must think about the evolution that takes place in any country. I have a very positive feeling regarding the evolution that is taking place in Russia. I participated in establishing the G8 in 1975. The issues that we discuss today are better solved thanks to Russia’s participation than those that we discussed in 1975.

QUESTION: Many political analysts predict that there will be a harsh discussion concerning Russian energy policy at the G8 summit. What position do you think the American administration will take on this issue?

HENRY KISSINGER: You must understand that I am simply a citizen and your question should be addressed to government representatives who would be better able to answer it. I am more concerned about the fact that at the summit in St Petersburg they will discuss issues linked with the energy security of all countries and not only one country’s energy policy.

Please excuse me but I must catch my plane. Allow me to use this opportunity to thank all those who gave me such a warm welcome in Moscow and especially here, in Novo-Ogaryovo. And I would like to say that each time I am in Russia I always have the impression that progress has been made during my absence. I will undoubtedly return to Russia again.

Thank you very much.