OPINION/COMMENTARY

The Never Ending Story

Late this week -- for the fourth time in recent memory -- major press outlets trumpeted that, as Bloomberg News put it, "Russia Approves Kyoto Protocol". The stories claimed Russia would be ratifying the global treaty designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus ensuring enough participant countries for the treaty to enter into effect. None of the major outlets explicitly noted the irony of having reported this purported breakthrough on several prior occasions -- although one curious Reuters headline hinted at the media's earlier errors: "Kyoto Saved Again".

What's behind the latest outburst of "news"? Russian officials cleverly continue to engineer a campaign to obtain from the European Union certain concessions and understandings. Russia appears driven to tell the EU what it wants to hear on Kyoto, in order to avert problems with Brussels over other matters, including Russia's response to Beslan and other terrorist attacks. Until recently, trade-off negotiations with the EU centered on Russia's desire for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO)....