TODAY: Kyrgyzstan violence continues, CSTO to send in helicopters; US human trafficking report published; Medvedev unexpected trip to Chechnya; Iran demands missiles; Latvian arrested over Arctic Sea; Baluva test; rally against police lawlessness; repercussions of vigilantism; Sochi

The Economist explains how national boundaries drawn up during the Soviet era have contributed to the current ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan, in which up to 700 people are believed to have been killed.  Uzbekistan has, according to Bloomberg, closed its border to more than 75,000 refugees fleeing the upheaval in the country, due to too great an influx.  The Moscow Times puts the number of refugees at 100,000.  The Guardian considers why the situation has exploded and suggests, ‘Russia is widely believed to have triggered the latest upheavals by undermining the now deposed president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev’.  The CSTO has apparently proposed sending helicopters and trucks to provide assistance.   ‘The violence could prove a key test for the military alliance, which has been described as Moscow’s answer to NATO’s eastern expansion’.  Former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has suggested that a regional security organization dispatch peacekeeping troops to the country.   A senior Obama administration official has told the Washington Post that the White House is in ‘extremely close communication with the Russians’ on an international response.  CNN reports that the ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev has no intention of returning to power and hopes to remain in Belarus.