TODAY: Cracks appearing in Kremlin’s anti-crisis consensus; NATO in Georgia a ‘provocation’; Transdniestria seeks Russian loan; Medvedev to relax laws on NGOs?

Ministerial opinions seem to be diverging on whether tax cuts should be introduced in the crisis period.  There is also contention over the economic prognosis; Arkady Dvorkovich says that Russian growth will pick up in the third quarter, whilst Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin suggests Russia is in for a ‘long siege‘.  Putin, on the other hand, has optimistically forecast growth will return in 2010 and suggested that Kudrin’s comments were made because he is ‘in a certain state of stress’.  Russian companies may find it hard to repay loans from VEB, making nationalization a possibility, says Reuters.  Soviet Union savers who lost their money when assets were frozen in 1991 are not being fairly recompensed, despite recent promises from Alexei Kudrin, reports the Moscow Times.