TODAY: Russia and NATO to resume ties by next month; Russia to build ‘illegal’ naval base in Abkhazia; new patriarch will be ‘alleged former KGB agent’; Storchak case re-opened; Putin and Medvedev ‘at odds’ about economic crisis; alleged army abuses.

Full ties between Russia and NATO could be resumed as early as next month, according to envoy Dmitry Rogozin, speaking after yesterday’s informal preliminary meetings.  ‘Everything was very constructive,’ he said.  NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer confirmed the re-engagement.  Moscow could start building a naval base in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region this year, potentially fueling Western concerns about its growing military presence there.  Tbilisi says the move would violate its sovereignty, and Georgian lawmakers say the plan is ‘absolutely illegal‘.