TODAY: Medvedev meets Olympic team; transparency report says Russia must fight political corruption; Lake Baikal dive “an advertisement”; nuclear rhetoric is “insanity”; Ukraine wants independent church; Russia’s criminal elite. Russia’s Olympic team attended a Kremlin cathedral service this week and met with President Dmitry Medvedev “for a pep talk”. A new report by the Russian branch of Transparency International says that Russia’s fight against corruption won’t be successful unless the authorities take effective action against political corruption. Russia’s rhetorical position, implying a willingness “to start a nuclear war if its point of view is not accepted”, is viewed by one Russian journalist as “insanity”. A Russian Foreign Ministry official has shrugged off recent criticism from US Senator John McCain. “Let him first become the US president, and then we will listen attentively to him,” he said. Viktor Yushchenko is seeking to separate the orthodox churches of Ukraine and Moscow.