June 9, 2008 By Citizen M

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – June 9, 2008

090608iii.jpgTODAY: St Petersburg International Economic Forum held over the weekend; increased censorship of journalists; new nationalist coalition to improve ideology’s image; Russia to withdraw some soldiers from Abkhazia; environmentalists says Olympics threaten Sochi’s wildlife; Kudrin says NATO should be “consigned to history”. The weekend’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which hosted a powerful lineup of international business heavyweights, was an extravagant spectacle of “drinks, magic and a flying pig,” with many of the participants reportedly arriving on their own yachts. “Equally insidious as government censorship is the growing self-censorship among Russian journalists. […] News about Chechnya or Georgia or Iran now follows the government line.