TODAY: Funeral for Patriarch Alexei II held today in Moscow – video; Solidarity member to step down after receiving government post; Transparency International bribe survey; Aleksanyan case not a sign of a shift in government stance; nanomania hits the Kremlin.

The results of a new survey of senior business executives from around the world by Transparency International revealed that companies based in Russia are the most likely to pay bribes to win business in other countries.  In the latest development of the Kremlin’s ‘nanomania‘, or obsession with promoting nanotechnology, Anatoly Chubais has announced a war on ‘nanothieves‘ – ‘We will implement a system of standards to weed out swindlers who use the term ‘nano’ in the names of their companies and products just to get the attention,‘ Chubais explained.  Nikita Belykh is to give up his membership of the new ‘Solidarity’ democratic party currently being set up in Russia, after receiving an offer of a governor post in the Kirov region.