Mladá Fronta DNES, 7 April 2010
“Slovakia plays an important role in Russian gas supplies to Europe”, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared during his trip to Bratislava on April 6th. And it is also totally dependent on Russia for its energy needs, as well as economic ones, quips Czech daily Mladá Fronta DNES. Slovakian PM Robert Fico policy of developing closer ties with Russia in other areas of the economy are also coming in for criticism from the opposition, MFD reports. The government is considering establishing a Russian-Slovak joint venture with Gazprom, which the Prague daily sees as a potential competitor to SPP (Slovakia’s largest gas provider), in which the state is a major stakeholder.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.