TODAY: EU monitors unhindered in South Ossetia; no grounds for Cold War, says Medvedev; soldier sent to Siberia over rap video; what’s wrong with Russian liberalism?; Supreme Court rules to rehabilitate the last Czar; Medvedev and Merkel to try restoring relations. Despite concerns, EU monitors have not met with any Russian resistance in South Ossetia, with some being allowed into the previously outlined buffer zone. Russia may blast a railway line through the Caucasus mountains to create a link with South Ossetia. President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are meeting today to focus on Georgia and the financial crisis, with both sides eager to ‘avoid clashes’ and restore ties damaged by friction over the war. Medvedev says there aren’t enough ideological differences between the US and Russia to spark a war of any kind. But ‘if the [Cold War] principle of “spheres of interest” is also back, then what is Russia doing selling Venezuela weapons and developing its military ties with it?’ The Kremlin’s security chief says Russia is concerned about the potential deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on Georgian or Ukrainian territory.