Author Archives: Doug Merrill

About Doug Merrill

Freelance journalist based in Tbilisi, following stints in Atlanta, Budapest, Munich, Warsaw and Washington. Worked for a German think tank, discovered it was incompatible with repaying US student loans. Spent two years in financial markets. Bicycled from Vilnius to Tallinn. Climbed highest mountains in two Alpine countries (the easy ones, though). American center-left, with strong yellow dog tendencies. Arrived in the Caucasus two weeks before its latest war.

The Blog Next Door

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If a fistful of euros aren’t quite enough for your daily needs, hop over to A Few Euros More.

A Few Euros More is having a trial run because the authors here wanted more, too. On the one hand, discussion about our posts is one of the best parts of the blog. Talking with our excellent readership, having people react to what we write is one of the most gratifying parts of writing here. On the other, discussion tends to taper off rapidly as a post slides down the page. So sometimes we are reluctant to post a short thought on a news item, or ineed short thoughts on almost anything, because we don’t want to push a good discussion further down the page. Which means we’ve been missing the chance to blog on different things.

Hence, A Few Euros More. It’s in the experimental stage, though it probably won’t stay in beta quite as long as Google products seem to. We’ll find out what we like, what our readers like, and adjust accordingly. Right now, it’s full of quick newsy thoughts just waiting for comments. Thoughts on the experiment itself can come here.

Update: One way reader/bloggers could help is by adding a link to A Few Euros More in your sidebar, and of course, if you like the idea, mentioning it on your blog.

Long Sentence Coming

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The trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky is coming to an end, with a guilty verdict a near certainty. Actually, a guilty verdict has been a near certainty from the word go: conviction rates in Russia are upwards of 95 percent. With the structure saying one thing and the Kremlin saying the same thing, maybe the biggest surprise is that it has taken so long to get there.

The prosecution has asked for a ten-year sentence, and they will probably get it. According to the news on my radio station this morning, the judge’s latest ruling reproduced the prosecution’s brief word for word. Including typographical errors.

Eh, Non

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The Financial Times quotes former EU Commission President Romano Prodi on the consequences of a French rejection of the constitutional treaty.

?There would be no more Europe. We will pass through a long period of crisis.

?The problem will not only be a catastrophe for France, but the fall of Europe.?

This is arrant nonsense.

Nor is it likely to help the Yes campaign. The French are a funny people (sometimes even intentionally) but they are not likely to be stampeded into voting yes by this sort of gloom and doom.

The Union will face a crisis if France does not approve the constitutional treaty by the final deadline of 1 November 2006. It’s not at all clear to me, though, that a rejection next month is a final rejection. (If anyone has learned anything about EU politics, it is surely that nothing is ever final.)

The bid to have France lead the way forward looks to be failing. But are the French willing to be the only people to reject the treaty?

Five member states have ratified the treaty already; Spain, the sixth, has said Yes in a referendum, so parliamentary ratification is likely to be a formality. Four to six more could act before the French referendum. All of the countries in question are addressing the constitution through their parliaments, and all are expected to vote Yes. So as much as half the Union may have said Yes by the time France throws a spanner in the works.

And a spanner it would be. While an EU without France is barely conceivable (though it might simplify language issues), the converse is also true. Plus the French have said No to a treaty before, and then changed their collective mind.

This still seems the likeliest course to me. France will say No next month. Over the course of the next year, almost everyone else will say Yes. France’s voters will face the prospect of Europe going on without them, and they will see the situation differently.

(Bonus Machiavellian questions: Is the FT deliberately trying to weaken Prodi by splashing such silliness on their front page? Do they really prefer Berlusconi? Or are they simply unable to resist such juicily foolish quotes from a major figure?)