Russia is well-prepared to host the G8 Summit and is aspiring to move into the spotlight of world politics, reports Shohdy Naguib from Moscow Russia will host the G8 Summit of industrialised nations in St Petersburg on 15-17 July. Buzzing public relations activity on the part of the Kremlin marked last week: President Vladimir Putin personally attended an array of public forums, answering tricky questions and stressing his liberal and democratic views. His appearances were strategically calculated to give pre-emptive answers to Western concerns with regard to Russia's internal and foreign policies. "Civil 8 -- 2006", the international forum of non- governmental organisations (NGOs) that traditionally takes place on the eve of G8 summits, assembled more than 600 NGO representatives from 50 countries and has been given maximum attention by the Russian media, completely overshadowing "The Other Russia" opposition forum led by former world chess champion Gary Kasparov. Putin has skilfully steered the discussion to present himself as the close friend of non-governmental activists, meanwhile strongly opposing the practice of NGOs receiving funds from foreign governments. In fact, the Russian Duma (parliament) recently enacted a law to control NGOs, which particularly addresses the funding issue as well as enforcing other restrictions on their activities. An unprecedented summit of religious leaders in Moscow has been host to over 200 delegates from 44 countries. It demonstrated that the Russian Orthodox Church is increasingly seeking an active role in the religious affairs of the world and bore witness to its firm stance with regards to the protection of fundamental values and human rights. Last December, the Russian People's Synod in Moscow came up with its own controversial initiative on human rights in opposition to the established one. Addressing the current summit, Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II called for a dialogue of cultures, to stand against intolerance and for the preservation of spiritual and moral values. He noted that in the West there is currently a tendency to "push religion onto the side-walk of life, and people often think that freedom allows permissiveness". In turn, President Putin called on the participants to establish dialogue between different confessions and to work on narrowing the gap between the views of people belonging to different religious traditions. An Internet conference with Putin, that incidentally took place on the birthday of US President George W Bush, gave an opportunity to the Russian president to express his personal positive attitude towards his American counterpart by calling him a "decent man" and stressing that the US is Russia's "most important partner". However, Putin made clear that Russia does not like the geopolitical attitude of the United States and favours a multi-polar world united against confrontation between its major powers. The Russian president refrained from criticising the US for its policy in Iraq and was careful to draw a line of distinction between his negative opinion of the US superpower policy and his good relations with President Bush. Putin's personal popularity in Russia surpasses that of any of the Western leaders attending the G8 Summit. Russians generally approve of the fact that their country has a say in world affairs and is challenging US global supremacy. Indeed, Russia's international moves are inclusive and multi-layered. The American rattling of arms is skilfully countered by Russia's pacifying diplomacy, which has strong support in world affairs. Its involvement in the Middle Eastern, Iranian and North Korean issues as well as elsewhere in the world balances the global scales, while its close ties with India and China bridge gaps in understanding between East and West. Apparently, the West is not ready to see Russia recover from its economic straits so fast and re-emerge as a powerful player in the world economy. Russia's economy is still much smaller than other G8 countries and its income per capita is only a fraction of G8 levels; but its economy has been growing fast and is deriving impetus from energy exports. In fact, in recent years, Russia has become an energy superpower -- it is the world's biggest source of natural gas and is in possession of 13 per cent of the world's known oil reserves, 23 per cent of coal and 14 per cent of uranium, and is using these assets to advance its interests, whether the Western powers like it or not. The issue of global energy security will top the agenda of the G8 Summit in St Petersburg. Russia is ready to conduct a productive dialogue for the sake of establishing a strategy that will strengthen trust between the G8 partners and benefit the whole world. The Western demand for access to upstream networks in Russia has met a reasonable demand for access to downstream facilities and distribution networks in the European Union and the US. Such reciprocal supply and demand has been hailed as a paradigm of globalisation and is spurring on Russian involvement in global trade. The issue of Russia's record on democracy is not going to be discussed at the summit, but Western leaders are likely to bring up the question in private. However, President Putin has the answers ready, as he has reiterated on numerous occasions during the past months. He can respond that there are problems with democracy in every country, that moderate state involvement in the press is a normal practice everywhere, and that Russia has come a long way since the era of Communist rule and should be applauded for its efforts to ensure personal freedoms. Last but not least, on Monday, Russian media relayed the news of the death of the Kremlin's arch-enemy, the Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev, who is known to have plotted several deadly terror strikes in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia. According to official sources, he was in the process of preparing a major terrorist attack in the neighbouring Republic of Ingushetia to influence the course of the G8 Summit. As a result of a "special operation", he met his end in the blast of a truck loaded with explosives, together with a number of his accomplices. This development could be seen as yet another sign that Russia is ready for the G8 Summit and has secured in advance the course of its proceedings.
