TODAY: U.S.-Russia meetings to go ahead as Obama raises spectre of Cold War; court cuts Khodorkovsky’s sentence by two months; spotlight on migrant workers; Politkovskaya witnesses to be questioned in private; dissident priest stabbed; gasoline, sulfur, rubber, construction, infrastructure.

A high-level meeting between American and Russian officials will go ahead this Friday despite tensions over Russia’s decision to grant asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.  U.S. President Barack Obama says that he will go to Russia for the G20 summit later this year, but expressed disappointment about the Snowden case, blaming it on a ‘Cold War mentality’.  He also commented on Russia’s gay rights situation, saying that he has ‘no patience for countries that try to treat gays and lesbians and transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them’.  Liberal Democratic Party Leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky joined a protest at the American Embassy in Moscow yesterday, condemning Russian flag desecration by U.S. group Bloodhound Gang.  Russia’s Supreme Court rejected a motion to overturn the second conviction of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev on charges of tax evasion and fraud, but ruled to cut their sentences by two months; supporters of the pair called the decision a ‘pathetic gesture’.  It is thought that, at earliest, Khodorkovsky could be released a year ahead of schedule.