GERMANY: A German university has abandoned plans to award an honorary doctorate to the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, after professors protested against his stifling of the free press in Russia and his human rights record in Chechnya.
The University of Hamburg planned to honour Mr Putin for his role as former deputy mayor of St Petersburg, Hamburg's twin city, in aiding the movement from the Soviet planned economy to the market economy.
But the university has now decided to cancel the ceremony, planned for September 10th, because "the necessary preparations could not be made ahead of this date".
Behind the unremarkable statement, however, lie weeks of bitter dispute at Hamburg University and a petition from 67 professors calling Mr Putin an autocrat who suppresses independent media and civil society organisations. "Under his leadership and responsibility, the young Russian democracy is, according to the unanimous opinion of experts, taking on authoritarian characteristics," said the document.
It went on to accuse the Russian leader of pursuing a "war in Chechnya that contravenes international law" and of "not fulfilling the criteria" necessary for an honorary doctorate.
University figures have denied suggestions that the idea for the doctorate came from the Chancellery in Berlin. Nevertheless it was seen as a return of the gesture from the University of St Petersburg last year when it awarded Chancellor Gerhard Schröder an honorary doctorate in the presence of Mr Putin. The two men have a close relationship and the Russian leader speaks fluent German from his time as a KGB spy in cold war East Berlin.
Prof Michael Greven, of Hamburg University's politics department and the initiator of the protest, was unimpressed by the statement announcing the cancellation.
"That is an embarrassing end to the events, which are shameful for the university," he said.
The planned award caused uproar in Hamburg and attracted the attention of human rights groups such as Amnesty International, who have demonstrations planned in Hamburg during Mr Putin's visit. Another group, The Society for Threatened Peoples, accused Mr Putin of "genocide" in Chechnya.