TODAY: Russia sees NATO as test for Obama; gas supplies to Europe resume; Duma reading freedom of information bill; fighter jets transported to Lebanon; tributes to Stanislav Markelov.

The Kremlin says that it considers the US position on NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine to be a key issue on which to judge the intentions of US President Barack Obama.  The new US administration will certainly improve relations with Russia, says one columnist, but only because ‘bilateral relations could hardly get worse than they are now’.  But others see Obama’s inauguration speech, in which he said ‘America is a friend of each nation’, as a cause for optimism regarding the improvement of US-Russia relations.  The United States military has obtained permission to move troop supplies for Afghanistan through Russian territory.  Russia, ‘which is trying to increase its influence again in the Mideast,’ has begun shipping fighter jets to Lebanon.