For the Russian Federation is very important engaging with NATO as almost 80% of Russian population (110 million out of 142 million) lies in the European portion of the Federation, and first of all the Central District around Moscow, so if the Western flank remains stable and pacific with Russia being a partner of both the E.U. (Customs Union) and NATO (Partnership) then Russia can concentrate its forces in the Eastern flank next to North Korea and China, which are more unstable political regimes, or support their alliance with former Russian protectorates in Central Asia. At the same time it is in the interest of the European Union (E.U.). and NATO an stable and pacific Eastern border with the Russian Federation so resources can be used in other areas of the World...

NATO (Partnership) will be direct involving in war in Afghanistan and other obscure & obscene demonstrations of USA ambition of world hegemony! Wisdom of Russian position (not to trust NATO ) proved again and again to be the right choice! NATO ( in USA hands) has no peaceful intentions only ambition to dominate world by removing all adversaries one by one If Chechnya ,Yugoslavia, Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan didn't teach Russia lesson about true intentions of NATO than Russia has very short memory! They(USA & NATO) never wanted you Russia ! They just need you now be cause you grow much stronger than before and they are in trouble with their plan! But when they remove all others enemies they will turn again against you also! NATO is Cold War demon that didn't die when it had to, growing (destroying) like cancer tissue of world peace every day more! Do not forget , they are organization that attacks countries that never attacked them and kills innocent people in those countries! If that is not definition of terrorist organization than I don't know what else can it be!?! Don't go with evil Russia! You are the protector of what is left of the free world and we need you to stay the way you are or freedom will die without your protection!

this is a proof of the biased view of our "so free journalism " ... this morning i watched RT to see the Russian President meeting with what is supposed to be the elite top-notch businessmen in France (just for a reminder : last time i checked = my own passport was showing on front-page "Republique Française " ) i tried to see if any of the French information channels was mentioning the event , NONE of them was ! it ranged from a Non-state channel stating that the visit was a kind of repentance from Russia after the invasion of Georgia ... (yes , you read right , i put the volume louder in case my ears were playing me fool ...) to the State-Owned channel just ignoring totally the subject as the President Medvedev has never been in Paris ! for the "pisse-vinaigre" (mumbling persons ) who would suggest that could be an effect of the floods needing press coverage = while the President was answering questions : one channel was displaying "moroccans women buying stuff in Ceuta" , an other was showing a subject about Football all others were just omitting completely the event , showing commercials ! for the fun , when President Obama came to Paris , even when he was going to the toilets , at least 50 journalists were following him ... i guess this is freedom of information .... only a shame that the very same ones after are going to debate about democracy ! i feel ashamed to be French today !

One only needs to look at history. If France had not helped the original Colonists of America, we in the United States would still be worshipping the Royals of England; being owned/governed by them. Using history as a basis to learn from, I can only applaud the attempts of Mr. Sarkozy, Mr. Medvedev, and Mr. Putin to strengthen the cornerstones of democracy in Russia by working together. Again in looking at history the United States much like Russia of today had to deal with entities trying to steal its resources (land, etc.). Our President Jackson shortly before he was President had to shoot British Agents attempting to stealing resources of our new country at the time. Fast forwarding to the present time we see Saakashvilli/others on the Eastern Front, Turkey/others on the Southern Front seemingly going to a Radical approach, Japan/others on the Western Front making demands of Russia, and on the Northern Front Russia is being told as reported by the "renowned" NBC News it does not own its Arctic area. - There are many good people; politicians in the United States but we see others who now have "collected bulging bank accounts", given to them by friends such as a Saashkivili, etc. I hope Russia is able to avoid the mistakes made by some in the United States. It seems Russia remains positive in their efforts to grow with democracy and this association with France is a part of this positive growth. Good luck to everyone in this world of today................

To Fred I am afraid one can observe the same picture in the German mass media: as if it were no visit to France. However, it is typical for official Germany: they speak about themselves and about the Big Brother of the USA, the others can become a topic if something explodes, or quakes, or sinks.

Fremder , unfortunately (so to say ...) i have got a German reisepass as well (funny family history) , what really amaze me = it is not really the French presidential fault , much more our journalists ... i thought that informing was about to give as many aspects of a problem as you can and then let your auditors decide for themselves ! i guess i was wrong , we , in western europe are becoming "americanized" , news shows ONLY what we are supposed to think , "Dirty thing of past" like "Libre-Arbitre" (can be resumed by : think whatever you want BUT do it by yourself in full understanding of meaning ) is going to the sewage ... like it was on US TV in the time of GW Bush ! by showing only one aspect of the problem , journalists should be ashamed of being played , but after all the motto remains " Dividing IS ruling" , the only point i can't get = if i understand very easily that US journalists (and their puppets :some of the UK ones) and politicians would be scared of an Europe being united both Geographically and Politically , what European Journalists have to fear ? the only logical conclusion i can see = they are afraid to have to admit that they have lied to public opinion for the past 15 years ... Things have been tough in Post-Soviet-Union , still some problems remains (frankly , who can say a country is without problems not showing himself completely stupid ?) but the reality is Russia is not BlackHole of freedom , prosperity and human rights they depicted so well for too long ! Riley : i agree ... today , i would be proud of having a Russian Passport for their uninterrupted effort toward peace and peaceful agreement in today world , much more than having anything to do as a citizen with those journalists i described !

Well in Poland it was one of the main topics in the news. I think that general perception in the German and French media is that Russia is so far away that there is no need to mention if their presiden came to visit. On the other side in Poland media are oversensitive in case of news regarding Russia.

To Fred: There is a saying, that journalism is the second oldest profession. If you know which profession is considered to be the oldest one, you can recognize the understatement. Who owns the mass media? Which message do the owners want to bring forward? Are they ready to pay for a “wrong” message? What is the journalists’ priority: to inform or to earn their livings? The Westerners have never been especially keen of sacrificing their well-being (that does not refer to every single individual, it is just a tendency), so I do not expect journalists to deviate from the trend.

To From Poland: What was the main tendency of the comments? Positive? Negative? Neutral? Thanks in advance.

to "From Poland" (i am sorry , i would prefer to call you "kotek" instead but that is your choice , no other way out than to respect it !) in order to understand fully what is going on , i could advice you to read a book made by a renowned french historian "Alexandre Adler" even if i am not sure it is translated into any other language ... the book is describing the last few months of Berlin-Wall and what exactly were the forces and interventionists in the play , like the Soviets had the idea of "Freeing" eastern Germany to get rid of the US influence ... in fact it was an idea of Beria , who could have been quite a reformatter of the Soviet Union if not stopped by some others communists who did prefer to get a grasp on power (btw : it is funny [so to say] that Beria , ex boss of NKVD had a personality far more complex than the criminal-butcher he is presented to be in the western world ...) idea that was later retaken by Andropov who did not have enough time to do it , but who pushed forward his champion "Gorbatchev" to try to fulfill it ... the book demonstrate that , at the fall of Berlin-Wall , the then french president (Mitterand , still considered as something kind of holly in France by the left , even if i personally believe he was a brilliant crook who have been on the whole political spectrum from royalist-activists before WW2 to some office-responsibilities in the Nazi-occupied France [Vichy Gov.] then to socialists-left in order to get a grip on power ) did everything and anything in order to sabotage what he considered as a threat to the "German-French couple like relation" (on this part : he wasn't so wrong , since 1989 the "Couple" had numerous crisis mainly due to the eastern-shift of German Gov.) what is so frustrating for me : those events took place from WW2 to fall of Soviet Union .... long time ago ! isn't it time to understand we should forgive each other for all the bad things we all did ? for better future !

@Fremder It was polarised from histerical nonsense that France betrayed UE and NATO for Russia, to over positive that UE and RF are building counterbalance to evil US and NATO. Polish media enviroment is highly antagonized between each other and it really depends on what source present the news. Catholic and post-solidarity media are usually against while business and post-socialist media are pro. Overall I think there was a neutral reaction overall if You sum those.

Russian-France has been renewed on the base of long-term good relations from the past. I admire that relationship.Why is happening now? Because we all know upcoming threats. All Christian countries have no choice but get together, help each other financially. This is the purpose of this relationship. I like Russia's economic and political flexibility and endure to achieve more attention and respect.