Tensions with Japan are escalating: the latest is that President Dmitry Medvedev has promised to send mistral navy ships to the Pacific to defend the Kuril islands.  Japan, meanwhile, continues to protest: ‘Whether Russia sends its leaders there or boosts its defenses, it still has no claim under international law to occupy the islands.‘  Japan says it is monitoring the region ‘with interest‘, in case of any deployment of weapons.  The investigation into the Domodedovo airport bombing has apparently ‘unveiled serious flaws in the work of Russian intelligence‘.  Garry Kasparov speculates that the ‘algorithm of action‘ in Egypt ‘is going to spread to Russia‘.