RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – June 10, 2008

TODAY: Gates says Russia is focused on developing nuclear capabilities; National Bolshevik Party “storm” Russian Railways; Putin for control over state corporations; Chaika forbids investigation of his colleague. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is using Russia to justify the maintenance of US nuclear arsenal, saying that they country appears focused on strengthening its nuclear capabilities rather than building up its regular armed forces. “Russia itself does not make war,” said Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. “We earn income from wars, however cynical that may sound.” A dozen activists from the banned National Bolshevik Party were detained after “storming the central Moscow headquarters of Russian Railways” in support of an independent rail union.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says that the Russian government should carefully control spending of state corporations and development institutions.Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has issued an order forbidding the Investigative Committee from investigating a criminal case involving one of his top deputies. Sotheby’s sold $41.8 million of Russian 19th- and 20th-century paintings in London last night. World War I re-enactments – a new craze?PHOTO: National Bolshevik members burning flares in the windows of Russian Railways’ Moscow headquarters on Monday, June 9th, 2008. (Nikolay Rodionov / AP)