TODAY: Russia offers money to Kyrgyzstan to abandon obligations on its US military base; Tajik President cancels Moscow trip; Peskov says Putin was misunderstood; more protests on the horizon, Amnesty International demands release of opposition protesters; two Medvedevs; PR smears.

Russia will grant Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev major financial incentives, including a $150 million grant, if he agrees to shut down a strategic US airbase which holds 1,000 troops and which is a crucial supply station for US operations in Afghanistan.  Bakiyev, ‘under increasing domestic pressure due to heavy indebtedness’, is in Moscow today.  The BBC writes on the reforms planned for the Russian military, and the implications that they have on future foreign policy moves in relation to NATO and the US.  Poland wants NATO to adjust its contingency planning to take into account what it views as ‘the growth in danger’ from newly-assertive Russia.  Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has cancelled the trip to Moscow he had scheduled for this week, ostensibly due to domestic problems, but the move has sparked speculation that Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to Uzbekistan last month has soured Moscow’s relations with Dushanbe, or that Rahmon wants to pressure Moscow for financial support.