TODAY: Russia announces support for Georgia’s breakaway regions. Interview with Russian Foreign Minister. NGOs to face stringent new regulations. Russia and Libya deals could be worth $10bn. Putin to re-marry? Rumors persist… Russia announced that it was broadly expanding support for the breakaway areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in neighboring Georgia, and that it would establish legal and trade links with them. The move has prompted “sharp criticism from Georgia and the West,” but the decision is supposedly “aimed at strengthening security and stability in the Caucasus.” Critics say that the controversial US missile shield, an ongoing source of tension with Russia, would not even work. Read the transcription of an interview with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, which discusses the US missile shield, NATO, and Dmitry Medvedev’s potential impact on foreign policy. The majority of Russians still widely identify Medvedev “as Mr. Putin’s loyal aide, and approvingly so.” Anthony Brenton, London’s ambassador to Moscow, says Britain hopes to make a fresh start in its difficult relations with Russia after Medvedev becomes President.