TODAY: Putin takes Sochi plans off track to comply with environmental organizations, tax cuts for NGOs raise concerns; UK press has reservations about Medvedev’s optimistic outlook on relations; Abramovich resigns as governor of Chukotka; a third of money for armed forces goes to corruption; poll reveals 50% of the Russian middle-classes do not believe in a Putin legacy of stability. Vladimir Putin has ordered organizers of the 2014 Winter Olympics to relocate a number of planned facilities away from protected wilderness following complaints that some of the constructions would damage wildlife. “In determining our priorities – money or the environment – we chose the environment,” he said. Putin’s decision to offer fewer tax breaks to Western NGOs has “raised fresh fears that the Kremlin had opened a new front in its war against free speech”. Letters and a comment piece printed in The Guardian show reservations regarding Medvedev’s indication of wanting to improve relations with the UK. Medvedev is to make his “debut” at next week’s G8 summit. In terms of “asserting European values,” one source already see him as “following the course set by Vladimir Putin” in relations with the EU. Medvedev has fired Russia’s envoy to the European Court of Human Rights.