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

San Francisco Chronicle

on the Russians coming

Three decades ago, the idea of a Russian warship cruising into San Francisco Bay was unthinkable. Yet on June 20, the Russian missile cruiser Varyag docked. Even in 1983, concerns purportedly about Russian industrial espionage prompted the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution to evict the Soviet consulate from Pacific Heights, which then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein wisely vetoed.

Now, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is to tour Silicon Valley firms, including a meeting at Twitter, a visit at Cisco Systems and a chat with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Medvedev's visit is part of a plan to convert Russia's oil economy to an innovation economy. Its keystone is to create an innograd — a Silicon Valley — in a Moscow suburb to attract venture capital and woo talented Russian technologists back home.

But there's more to Silicon Valley than technology and money. It's a culture; an entrepreneurial ecology not easily replicated, and one that depends on the rule of law, clear intellectual property rights, and a tax regime that supports competition — all problematic in Russia. University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business professor David Teece says Russia has the technical expertise, but its government-led scientific community lacks the needed alliances with industrial partners both in Russia and abroad.

Russia's loss is California's gain. But then, who imagined the arrival of the Varyag?

Chicago Tribune

on rise in the sale of firearms

If the US Supreme Court overturns Chicago's handgun ban, naturally you might expect a rise in the sale of firearms and ammunition.

Except that's already happened — nationwide. The election of Barack Obama ushered in boom times for gun manufacturers, which only now show signs of abating. Industry revenues have shot up an average of 6.9 percent annually since 2005, including a robust 8.9 percent jump in 2009 — Obama's first year in office.

Smith & Wesson must love it when Democrats win the White House. President Bill Clinton became known as the industry's "salesman-in-chief" during a tenure marked by the federal assault-weapon ban and the Brady Act requiring background checks for gun purchases. Obama may win a spot in the firearms-marketing hall of fame apparently just for being Obama.

Contrary to what the shoot-'em-up crowd feared, the president has spent no political capital pushing new regulations. He has expressed so little interest in an issue long considered central to his party that the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence graded his first year in office with straight "Fs." If anything, Congress could be more pro-gun after the midterm election Nov. 2, so don't expect bold initiatives from the White House...

By far the biggest sales gains over the last two years came in the civilian sector, reports Nima Samadi, industry analyst at the IBISWorld research firm. The decision to load up on ordinance may very well have been a case of emotion trumping logic, he says. "Losing the job or having the hours cut back is one of those things I can't predict. I can control the safety of my family."