TODAY: Medvedev’s fireside chat offers to trade loyalty for transparency and insists the economy is stable; more Moscow protests; veterans mark 20 years since Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan; alcohol on flights, bear hunting.

In the first of a new series of televised ‘fireside chats’, President Dmitry Medvedev insisted that Russia’s ‘financial and economic situation is entirely stable’, and defended the government’s decision to stockpile its oil revenues over the last years.  He also promised a new deal of more government openness in exchange for Russia’s loyalty and support, and said that the biggest problem facing the country is its rising unemployment rate.