Word: liberties
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...they may have had their doubts about EaP even before that. Fabio Liberti, a European affairs and security expert with the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris, notes that the calls to push the E.U.'s influence eastward was devised by certain member states - above all Poland and Sweden - to counterbalance the Mediterranean Union that Sarkozy initiated last year to reach out to Europe's southern neighbors. Even that, Liberti says, was fueled by France, Italy, Spain and Greece trying to shift the E.U.'s center of gravity back towards the middle of the continent after the fall...
...desire to be a regional player. "With both energy markets tanking and Russia's economy hit extremely hard by the global recession, Putin probably feels he has much to gain by trying to jack up gas prices and [get] badly needed revenues flowing into state coffers again," says Fabio Liberti, an expert on Russo-European affairs for the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris. "Meanwhile, picking a fight abroad to distract and provoke public opinion when things look bad at home is a common political ruse - especially by Putin...
...Liberti says Putin's use of energy as a political tool - and his recent defiance of Europe and the rest of the world in Russia's military clash with Georgia - may signal that the Russian leader believes he risks little more than short-term trouble in making internationally unpopular moves that serve his interests. Liberti also suggests that the winter freeze and the assumption of the E.U. presidency by the Czech Republic, an ex-Soviet satellite, may have added to Putin's motivations. "Putin is reminding Europe [that] Russia's a force to be reckoned with, and that its position...
Soprano Claudia Muzio (Mrs. Renato Liberti) wore diamonds in the ballroom scene of La Traviata. The same afternoon a writ of attachment had been filed on all her gowns and jewels by the Phillip Barnett Co., jewelers, who complained that she owed them...