Eurotopics.net

Putin's United Russia party won the Duma elections on Sunday with a big lead against three other parties with close ties to the Kremlin. Once again there were reports of irregularities, and voter turnout was lower than in 2011. Voters see no point in going to the polls at all anymore, commentators write, describing the Duma as a pro forma institution.

In his State of the Union address, EU Commission President Juncker complained about lacking solidarity among the member states. The EU is in an "existential crisis" after the Brexit vote, Juncker said to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Some commentators also pin the blame for the state of the EU on the individual states. Others accuse Juncker of shifting responsibility to others.

Bayer has purchased the US seed producer Monsanto for 59 billion euros, becoming the world's biggest agrochemical business. Should this trigger panic among farmers and consumers or prompt a well-reflected debate on genetic engineering?

Public prosecutors in the city of Naples in Italy have launched an investigation into incitement to suicide after a 31-year-old woman hanged herself. Videos with sexual content in which the woman could be clearly identified had been circulating on the Internet for years, and she had been insulted and mocked on social media because of this. Italy's press is appalled and appeals to Internet users to act responsibly and show compassion.

The Foreign Affairs Committee in the British House of Commons has accused former British Prime Minister David Cameron of making grave mistakes in planning the UK's intervention in the Libya war in 2011, saying Britain's military strategy was based on false assumptions. This is another case that highlights Cameron's shortsightedness, some commentators conclude. Others praise Britain's renewed commitment to investigating questionable interventions.

Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish PKK, has called on the Turkish government and his supporters to resume peace talks. This was the first time he had been allowed to receive visitors since the Turkish peace process with the Kurds was broken off last year. Turkish commentators doubt that his call for peace will be heeded by the conflicting parties.