TODAY: Medvedev vows reforms to airline industry following hockey team crash; sporting community remains in state of shock; international political forum goes ahead in Yaroslavl stadium despite calamity.  Medvedev warns against xenophobia on political landscape; anti-pollution demo near Moscow.  New chapter in UK-Russia relations with Cameron’s visit?  Russia affirms belief in political end to conflict in Syria; region looks to Washington for aid.

Thousands of mourners have gathered outside Arena 2000 in Yaroslavl to pay tribute to the players who died in Wednesday’s plane crash.  ‘In an extraordinarily dark coincidence, the crash came the day before a showpiece international forum attended by several world leaders was to open in Yaroslavl. The venue? Arena 2000, the home stadium of the Lokomotiv side’: the Independent reports from the scene of the forum which has not been cancelled.  ‘But many of the mourners outside dismissed the notion of coincidence, repeating their logic to one another numbly: If the Kremlin had not decided to hold the event in Yaroslavl, the team would have opened the season at home instead of flying to Minsk’, says the New York Times.  President Medvedev has called for immediate changes to Russia’s aviation industry, among them reducing the number of airlines and buying foreign jets.  Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League could be less appealing to North American players, a sports agents has told Bloomberg.  In the meantime, a passenger plane has been forced to return to the airport in Russia’s northern port city of Arkhangelsk after losing cabin pressure.