TODAY: Kudrin’s successor named; former Finance Minister denies resignation spontaneous; lambasts Right Cause;  Medvedev defends military spending.  Forecasts of what Putin’s new reign might bring; deleterious effect on US Reset?  Lavrov still looking guarantees on missile defense in Europe; Timoschenko found guilty.  FSB book continues to cause a stir; Orthodox activist cleared of assault on reporter; police attempt to curb use of flashing lights; canines in Moscow.

Vladimir Putin has announced that in a joint decision with President Medvedev, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will oversee financial issues in the Russian cabinet while Anton Siluanov will become acting finance minister following the dismissal of Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.  Ria-Novosti has a profile on the new finance minister, who is apparently an expert in regional budgets.  Kudrin’s outburst against Medvedev had ‘nothing to do with emotions’, he told the press, arguing that his remarks were the result of long-term considerations.  In the meantime, the Kremlin has shown itself extremely efficient in wiping all traces of the former minister from the government building, says the New York Times, whilst President Medvedev reaffirmed at a meeting with soldiers in the Ural Mountain town of Chebarkul that military spending would remain a priority.  Kudrin has dismissed media reports that he might become the leader of Right Cause with this withering indictment: ‘I have never considered the possibility of becoming involved in an artificial project that in effect discredits the liberal-democratic idea‘.    The party’s ousted leader, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, has wrote on his blog that Russia is standing at ‘the threshold of a very important, perhaps tectonic shift in the consciousness of the elite’ as the ruling powers become ‘polarized’.