Endless talking and a hotspur

The 8th "Petersburger Dialog", a discussion forum on German-Russian relations happend in St. Petersburg a few days ago. The motto of this year's get together, which was attended by both Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Medvedev (albeit the meeting was kept rather short and Merkel did not plan to stay overnight, like during previous occasions), was "Russia and Germany in a global world - partner in modernization".

(Nice logo, endless discussions. Courtesy of Wikipedia and PD Website)

The event usually is split between plenary sessions and guest speeches and breakout session of distinct working groups on topics ranging from "politics" to "culture". On the webpage we are given only few information on the actual speeches or transcripts and the papers or reports of the working groups. A bit more transparency would be welcomed.

Interestingly, there is an award that the PD hands out annually, the Peter-Boenisch-Gedächtnispreis. This award ought to be given to young journalists who reported on the German-Russian relations. The winners of 2008 are not published yet, so we have to look to the winner of 2007, who was Benjamin Bidder, a young German who wrote a reportage on young German adults who spend time in Russia on social projects and meet survivors of the Second World war. This story was published on "Spiegel Online" in June 2007.

Benjamin seems to be quite active these days. After having received the price he wrote articles on Russian Hackers who are targeting the political opposition, a new "Institute on Human Rights in Russia", the silly ideas of the Russian pseudo politician Vladimir Zhirinovski. Well, write on then young fella! :-)