RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – March 26, 2008
TODAY: Anglo-Russian relations to “normalize”? Medvedev coached to look like Putin? Georgia-Russia transport links resume. Nato jets escort Russian patrols. Britain’s Ambassador to Russia will stand down at the end of the summer, and a Russian Foreign Ministry official said the departure “should be seen in the context of the readiness of the British side to normalize Russian-British relations”. Following the Egyptian President’s remarks about the similarities between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, one newspaper today alleges that Medvedev has had “voice and behaviour coaching so that he imitates his mentor’s speech patterns, mannerisms and slightly clenched gait.”
The British papers eagerly continue to follow the case of the missing Leonid Rozhetskin. Latvian police have confirmed that blood found at the entrepreneur’s villa was his own.Flights between Russia and Georgia have resumed for the first time in one and a half years, and sea links are next to be restored. Russia’s military has resumed its Cold War practice of flying regular patrols far beyond its borders, and Nato forces have sent jets to escort two Russian long-range air force bombers patrolling neutral skies near Alaska. Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is reportedly hailed as a “national hero” in Chechnya.The Stockholm International Arbitration Court has ordered developer Capital Group to pay Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat $2.8 million over the unauthorized use of his design for two Moscow skyscrapers.PHOTO: Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev pose in this photo taken December 30, 2007. (REUTERS/Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool/Files)
