European press review

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the UK attracts comment in Switzerland and Russia itself, Austria's coalition government faces a crisis and the German press accuses television stations of pouring too much money into football.

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The Swiss Le Temps notes the pomp and ceremony surrounding Vladimir Putin's visit to Britain.

There are two flies in the ointment - the first is Chechnya and the second is oil

Moskovskiy Komsomolets

"For the British royal family," the paper believes, "this is a belated closure with the abhorred communist regime".

But there will also be some hard bargaining during President Putin's stay, including, the paper believes, a demand that makes London "uneasy".

The Russians, it says, "want a future Iraqi government to honour the contracts signed by Saddam Hussein with Russian oil companies, worth several billion dollars".

This is "an immovable position", it notes, "with which the British must compromise".

As for President Putin's hosts, the paper wonders, "will Tony Blair keep his promise to raise again with his interlocutor the question of the abuses committed by the Russian army in Chechnya?"

Putin's visit is a sign that the Royal household has forgiven Russia

Izvestiya

The answer is yes, but gently: London, it believes, "will know how to find the right words so as not to upset its guest".

Russia's Moskovskiy Komsomolets says that "in foggy Albion, Russia is associated mainly with oil and gas, while the president himself is associated with Tsar Alexander II, who visited Britain in 1874."

Alexander is famed for passing laws against serfdom in Russia.

"This is flattering, of course. But there are two flies in the ointment.

"The first is Chechnya and the second is oil, for Putin's economic successes depend on consistently high world oil prices."

Also in Russia, Izvestiya notes that "the kind of reception Putin is enjoying in Britain is truly fit for a king.

"Neither Boris Yeltsin nor Mikhail Gorbachev had the honour of being invited by the Queen herself.

"Many see Putin's visit as a sign that the Royal household has forgiven Russia."

Austrian government crisis

Vienna's Der Standard says a vote by deputies of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria's Upper House has sparked a crisis in the governing coalition.

The Austrian two-chamber system is fundamentally sick

Die Presse

The paper speaks of a "farce" in the Federal Council after nine Freedom Party deputies defied the coalition line in two contradictory votes on a budget bill which includes the controversial pensions reform project.

It believes that the incident is embarrassing not only for the party but also for the coalition and for the Upper House as a whole.

The paper describes the Federal Council as an insignificant institution which is barely noticed by the public but which on Monday sent out what it calls "a strong sign of life".

"This must, however, be recorded under the rubric of absurdities and is certainly not helpful for the Federal Council in the debate about its right to exist," the paper warns.

Vienna's Die Presse says the episode shows that the Upper House should be abolished.

"The Austrian two-chamber system, which is based on the idea of federalism, is fundamentally sick," it says.

The paper points out that the federal council has no real powers other than sending bills back to parliament, which then passes them again.

German war for football rights

Germany's Der Tagesspiegel accuses the country's two publicly-funded TV channels of pouring too much money into the acquisition of rights to cover top-level football matches.

The paper notes that the two channels are outbidding private broadcasters in what it calls "an excessive spending spree".

They are bidding with money which they didn't have to earn themselves

Die Welt

"People at ARD and ZDF have become so fixated on ratings that they interpret their comprehensive programming mission, which includes information and education as well as entertainment, ever more narrowly," the paper says.

Another German daily, Die Welt, agrees.

The paper notes that the annual TV rights to national league matches are worth the equivalent of "60 substantial villas in prime locations".

It dismisses the argument that it is just a matter of the highest bidder getting the contract, on the grounds that the two broadcasters are no ordinary market players.

"They are bidding with money which they didn't have to earn themselves and which was transferred to them, in the form of the licence fee, for a specific purpose," the paper warns.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.