Putin – the average KGB manager : interview with Dmitry Bykov (Krosno, May 2014)

An interview with a very famous Russian writer of the middle generation, Dmitry Bykov (born in 1967), recorded in Krosno in the Subcarpathian region in mid-May 2014, concerns the situation in Russia and in Eastern and Central Europe shortly after the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea by Putin’s Russia. Dmitry Bykov is strongly against this aggression, seeing it as the source of many future misfortunes for Russia, but at the same time he sees the disastrous dimension of contemporary Ukrainian politics, also – in his opinion – too nationalist. When it comes to the assessment of President Putin who functions to this day, Bykov considers him a very mediocre manager, and generally – a man without qualities, predicting his imminent collapse and retirement in some foreign country. The most interesting fragments of the conversation, however, are not those in which the writer’s, of course, unfulfilled predictions were formulated, but those about the past and present fate of Russia, which at the beginning of the 21st century again turned out to be hostile to democracy and good relations with its closer and more distant neighbours. Bykov sees in this peculiar Russian “laws of historical development,” but his vision of the future history of Russia is far from fatal and we can even call it moderately optimistic

Microbicidal efficacy of antiseptic mouth rinses on the basis of Octenidine, Chlorhexidine or amine-/tin-fluoride on periodontal pathogens

The use of antiseptic mouth rinses could be an useful clinical adjunct for reducing the risk of oral infections in dentistry and in intensive care medicine for prevention of pneumonia. Unfortunately no information is available on the microbicidal efficacy of the agents on peridondotal pathogens. The aim of the study was to proof the effect of the commercial available solutions Octenisept®, Octenidol®, Chlorhexamed® and Meridol® against different anaerobic and microaerophilic oral pathogens. As a result it could be shown, that octenidine-based rinses exhibit high in vitro reduction rates of the testorganisms, as consequence there are possibly suitable to prevent oral infections and can serve as an adjuncant in the prevention of pneumonia. The results also show that chlorhexidine digluconate and amine-/tin-fluoride outgoing from the in vitro data are appropriate to decrease the oral bacterial loading. With some pathogens, as microaerophilic rods and anaerobic grampositive cocci only minor reduction rates could be observed. Especially, Meridol proved to be rather ineffective in the case of A. actinomycetemcomitans .Antiseptische Mundspüllösungen haben sich zur Prävention oraler Infektionen und von Pneumonien als geeignet erwiesen. Über die mikrobiozide Wirksamkeit solcher Lösungen gegenüber den einzelnen relevanten Erregern gibt es aber kaum Daten. In der vorliegenden Studie sollte daher die Wirksamkeit der kommerziell erhältlichen Spüllösungen Octenisept®, Octenidol®, Chlorhexamed® und Meridol® gegenüber verschiedenen anaeroben und mikroaerophilen Erregern im quantitativen Suspensionstest untersucht werden. Im Ergebnis zeigte sich, dass Octenidin-basierte Spüllösungen eine hohe Reduktionsrate gegen die geprüften Erreger aufwiesen und somit möglicherweise zur Prävention von oralen Infektionen und Pneumonien geeignet sind. Auch Chlorhexidindigluconat-haltige und Amin-/Zinnfluorid-haltige Lösungen erreichten bei den meisten geprüften Erregern gute Reduktionsfaktoren. Bei einigen Erregergruppen, wie den mikroaerophilen gramnegativen Stäbchenbakterien und anaeroben grampositiven Kokkenbakterien waren jedoch geringere Reduktionen erzielbar. Meridol wies eine Lücke bei A. actinomycetemcomitans auf