TODAY: Putin the Theatre Critic. Music students protest eviction, factory workers protest unpaid wages. Praise for remnants of Communism. US and Poland reach agreement on missile defense. Russian relations with Georgia and South Africa. Students at one of Russia’s most prestigious music schools organized a surprise protest in one of the city’s busiest shopping malls to draw attention to their being evicted from their only dormitory, accusing the school of “selling the culture of our country”. Moscow unveiled a $45 million bobsledding track earlier this week, Russia’s first to meet international standards. Dmitry Medvedev commented, “Until recently, we were poor, and we could not allow ourselves to have complexes on this global level. Now our athletes will not have to go abroad to train but can do so at home, and the home surroundings help.” A group of factory workers are on hunger strike to protest months of unpaid wages. Vladimir Putin is in the news today as a theatre critic, after he attended a Moscow theatre and then suggested improvements for the play to its director. “A fork that Putin ate from can slay a vampire with one stab.”