The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.

Dagens Nyheter, –on the election in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is holding elections. It is the second time elections are being held in the country after the US invasion and the fall of the Taliban regime. ... It is the second time ever that democratic elections are being held in Afghanistan. ...

Afghanistan's biggest challenge is to build up a functioning and legitimate state. ... The Afghan government needs to gain control over the country. Without military and police infrastructure nothing else works. To build schools just to have them burned down only creates disappointment and indignation.

But the civil infrastructure also needs to be built. Without schools, hospitals, roads and new work opportunities, instigators of rebellion, Taliban and criminal gang leaders will continue to recruit supporters. ...

Faltering states, such as Afghanistan and Somalia, are of concern for the whole world community in a globalised world. Chaos and civil war are the worst conditions people can live under. That is also a perfect breeding ground for international terror. The cynicism isn't found in providing military help to try to establish a stable and democratic rule in these countries. The cynicism is found in leaving them alone or secretly peeking as inhumane dictatorships take power.

The fact that general elections, thanks to foreign military presence, can be held for a second time in Afghanistan, is an expression of the solidarity of the world community — but also an expression of our own instinct of self-preservation.

The Independent, London,– on Russia

The accident at Russia's largest hydroelectric power station, the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant in Siberia, has so far cost more than 70 lives. The pictures show utter devastation in the cavernous turbine hall.

As much as one quarter of the electricity Russia generates by hydropower has been knocked out. The authorities say repairs will take many months and the expense will run into billions of roubles. This is an accident, in its way, that has the potential to be almost as devastating for Russia as the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl was for the Soviet Union.

It is a huge blow to national pride. Sayano-Shushenskaya was a landmark Soviet project. ... Repairs will knock a large hole in Russia's budget, which is recovering only slowly from the effects of the global downturn and the slide in commodities prices last year.

But the accident apparently caused by a pressure surge in pipes is also a harbinger of something Russia's leaders have long feared: the inexorable degradation of the Soviet-era infrastructure.

From power stations to ports and airports, to pipelines and railways, through city heating plants and the Moscow metro almost everything is in urgent need of renovation.

... If anything good can come of the disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station, it may be to inject a sense of urgency into the renovation efforts that Russia should have made a national priority after the Soviet Union's demise 18 years ago.