(Own report) - The German Chancellor and the Russian President attended yesterday's opening of the annual Hannover Industry Trade Fair. This year, Russia was the fair's chosen "partner nation," a move to help promote German-Russian economic relations. The German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations announced a German-Russian economic summit to be held today. Since . . .

(Own report) - The southern German energy company EnBW has sealed a landmark deal with a Russian natural gas supplier. EnBW did not name the company, with which it concluded a 600 billion Euro gas supply contract, but business circles confirmed that the deal has been made with Novatek, which is the second largest Russian . . .

(Own report) - The Russian president is setting new accents in foreign policy and thereby threatens to weaken German influence in Russia. Vladimir Putin, who, spent only a few hours in Germany on his first official visit to Berlin, has arrived in Beijing for a three-day visit, where he announced his wish to expand relations . . .

(Own report) - In the run-up to Sunday's Russian presidential elections, contradictory interests have again become evident in German policy towards Russia. Whereas a large segment of the German media is participating in the campaign against the clear front-runner Vladimir Putin and thereby keeping step with the obvious intensification of global policy rivalry between the . . .

(Own report) - Just before the "Nord Stream" natural gas pipeline (or "Baltic Pipeline") goes into operation, a rival "Nabucco" project to German-Russian hegemony over European gas supply is on the verge of collapse. The "Nabucco" project - while bypassing Russia - was to transport the enormous Central Asian and Middle Eastern natural gas deposits . . .

(Own report) - The German government has initiated a new test run for a German - Russian cooperation that bypasses the USA. The laboratory for this experiment is Transnistria, a southeast European secessionist region that broke off from Moldova in the early 1990s, during the collapse of the Soviet Union and claims independence, even though . . .

(Own report) - The German chancellor will be using her trip to Russia and China, which begins today, to enhance business relations beyond the realms of the EU and North America. This thrust is taking into account China's rapid rise and the subsequent shift of the focus of the global economy from countries of the . . .

(Own report) - Berlin and Moscow are broadening their cooperation to the field of security technology with plans for the Russian Sistema company to join the German Infineon AG. Sistema is due to acquire approx. 30 percent of Infineon shares and thereby have access to basic technology, as well as military relevant encryption systems. Though . . .

(Own report) - German-Russian nuclear energy intrigues are provoking protests in Lithuania. In Vilnius the Minister of Energy is complaining that in contravention of the terms of the contract and in spite of billions in financial outlays, the dismantling of the Ignalina nuclear power plant is stalled. The contract was accorded the German Nukem company, . . .

(Own report) - After construction began on the Baltic Pipeline ("North Stream") at the end of last week, government advisors in Berlin have begun campaigning for further expansion of German-Russian cooperation. Moscow must be prevented from taking an East Asian orientation and exporting more of its natural resources to China than is currently the case, . . .

(Own report) - The EU should turn away from the USA and "convert to the East" in alliance with Russia. This is being demanded by a publicist in one of Germany's leading newspapers. Europe "is wrong, to think that it is part of the western world," explains the author basing himself on old ideologues of . . .

(Own report) - The incoming German government will continue to pursue close cooperation with Russia. This was predicted by Berlin's most prominent expert on Russian affairs in the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). According to this expert, the cooperation between Berlin and Moscow corresponds "in its entirety to national interests" and is not up . . .

(Own report) - In the prelude to NATO's Jubilee Summit at the beginning of April, influential German foreign policy makers are calling for a broadening of cooperation with Moscow in military policy. A government advisor of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) demands that "Europe" consider revaluating Russia "to a second pillar of European . . .

(Own report) - Through its nuclear alliance with Moscow, the German Siemens Corp. now has the perspective of participating in military nuclear projects. This is the outcome of the most recent talks held by the corporation's leaders with the prime minister of Russia. According to these talks, contrary to the initial announcement, this rapidly initiated . . .

(Own report) - The German Siemens Corporation is planning to extend its nuclear activities in collaboration with Moscow. According to reports, Siemens seeks to end its cooperation with the French nuclear company, AREVA, because it is being refused participation in the operative leadership of the joint venture. At the Siemens headquarters in Munich, one hears . . .

(Own report) - On the eve of talks about a new cooperation treaty between the EU and Russia, Berlin is considering closer military cooperation with Moscow. In reaction to official overtures made by the Russian president, government advisors in the German capital conclude "negotiations about a European security format" would "make a lot of sense". . . .

(Own report) - French officials of the EADS arms company, are warning against Berlin's factual take-over of the company. Germany is in the process "of usurping none other than the aerospace as well as the European defense industry" according to Jean-François Knepper, vice shop chairman at the EADS Corporation. The power struggle within the company's . . .

(Own report) - The "Siberian Year in Germany" has been inaugurated at the industrial fair in Hanover (located in the German state of Lower Saxony). The promotion and contact offensive is intended to prepare an extension of German/Russian economic cooperation, aimed at the world's most profitable region of natural resources. In the gigantic, in part, . . .

(Own report) - The German Railroad Corp.'s rise to a predominating position in European Rail traffic is encountering resistance in Great Britain. The director of the German Railroad, Hartmut Mehdorn, seeks to use the billions in proceeds generated by the forthcoming privatization of the enterprise, to buy up the rail companies in several EU countries. . . .

(Own report) - Berlin is demanding a reshaping of the EU's "neighborhood policy" with Russia. The objective is to strengthen the privileged trade relations held by German enterprises through the elimination of intra-European competition. All EU states would have to accept the "new formulation of their 'Ostpolitik' (East Policy)", and implement its terms under German . . .

(Own report) - In Norway last week, the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, strengthened the position of Germany, in the struggle for Arctic energy resources. The enormous reserves, that are only beginning to be tapped, are very significant for the EU's future power supply, which is increasingly dependent upon Russian and German-Russian energy cooperation. Gazprom, . . .

(Own report) - The German Railroad Corp. (DB) and the Russian Railways (RZD) are developing a common extension toward China. Within a few years, this joint venture ("EurasiaRailLogistics") is destined to augment, the rail freight traffic to the Far East, to 400 thousand tons. An objective is to logistically develop Germany into being one of . . .

(Own report) - The German sociologist of law, Professor Dr. Martin Bennhold, advises that an international lawsuit should be initiated against the development of installations at the Leipzig Airport, in preparation for service in NATO and EU combat missions. According to Bennhold, the "military conversion" is in violation of the 4-plus-2-Accord, which forbids foreign troops . . .

(Own report) - Against the background of the so-called gas conflict between Moscow and Kiew, German government advisors are predicting a heightening of tensions between Russia and NATO states. After the heavy losses of influence in the Ukraine, in the Southern Caucasus and in the resourceful Caspian regions, the Kremlin will seek to use its . . .

(Independent report) - The contracts prepared for today's visit of the Russian president to Berlin, concerning the construction of a pipeline running under the Baltic Sea, assure the strong position of German companies in the supply of natural gas to Europe. As a result, this has lead to anxiety within several neighbouring countries. Warsaw fears . . .

The Berlin government's talks with the Ukrainian President have ensured that Caspian oil reserves will flow towards Germany in greater quantities, while also bringing Ukraine closer to joining NATO. The German armaments and military equipment industry is hoping that the upgrading of military hardware in line with Western standards will bring it business valued in billions. Yesterday's talks were in part . . .

Berlin urges Moscow's integration into German world power ambitions particularly in regard to energy policies. A German-Russian ,,strategic partnership"intends to reduce the influence of western states and corporations in providing the EU states with natural gas which will become increasingly significant in the future. In the meantime, the German energy corporations, which already control large parts of the European energy supply, . . .

Berlin and Moscow are cooperating in the establishment of a group of states which will, on a case by case basis, oppose the USA in order to achieve its economic and political interests. During the consultations between the German and Russian governments in Jekaterinburg, agreements were reached on a series of projects. These will not only strengthen the economic integration . . .

The activities of the ,,Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge"(National League for the Preservation of German War Graves), which is in charge of ,,memorializing the (German) dead"of both world wars, continue to generate criticism and opposition. These are currently directed against the establishment of a memorial site in Russia's Sologubowka, where all German aggressors killed in action or missing in action are to . . .

As announced, the German-French enterprise EADS, the world's second largest aviation, space travel and armament consortium, begins its expansion into the United State's armaments market, displacing its main competitor Boeing. At the same time, the group extends its co-operation with Russian companies, which shall - especially in space travel - strengthen the consortium's position of independence vis a vis the USA. . . .

The German Wintershall, Inc., a BASF subsidiary company, establishes a joint venture with the Russian Gazprom in order to produce natural gas in Siberia. Previously, an extensive German-Russian economic agreement, through which the German corporation had obtained direct access to the Russian energy reserves, had been concluded. . . .

Soldiers of the German Wehrmacht are to have a monument erected to them on Russian territory - in a cemetery in Kaliningrad which is the last resting-place of prisoners of war, murdered by the Germans by being used in experiments. The erection of the monument, which makes the memories of the Nazis' experiments on humans secondary to that of the . . .

An academic project of the state of Schleswig Holstein established that there was a ,,tendency to estrangement from Russia"in the Russian Oblast of Kaliningrad and investigated the possibilities of introducing a ,,cross-border civil society"there. There exists a ,,considerable appeareance"that separatist opinion is gaining popularity and that a ,,spiral of escalation"is setting in. . . .

According to a report drawn up by the Bundesnachrichtendienst, the German equivalent of MI6, Russia is in danger of being de-stabilised. Gises on Russia's southern Rank, in the Caucasus and Central Asia, could, says the BND, lead to very senous conflict. In Chechnya, for instance, the Russians were not, according to the BND, succeeding in . . .