RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – April 16, 2010

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TODAY: Russia suspends US adoptions after ‘monstrous deed’; security to be stepped up for Olympics after terror attacks; Kyrgyz scenario could repeat itself; OSCE welcomes Bakiyev’s resignation; BRIC summit, NATO and WTO membership; ‘flying error’ to blame in Polish crash; Nashi celebrates anniversary. 
Russia has suspended all adoptions to the United States until procedures can be agreed on, amid anger following the return to Russia of Artyom Savelyev by his adoptive mother with a letter saying she wanted the adoption ‘disannulled‘.  President Dmitry Medvedev called her act ‘a monstrous deed‘. A US delegation is due in Moscow to discuss the setting out of parental duties and a system to monitor the treatment of adopted children; it is not thought that the suspension will last more than a few weeks.  A statement released at the end of the BRIC summit in Brazil pledged to resist protectionism and promote trade in local currencies.  Medvedev praised the BRIC format for ease in decision-making and coordinating efforts.  Russia will step up security measures for the 2014 Olympics in light of recent terrorist attacks.  The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, welcomed deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s departure and formal resignation from his post Kyrgyzstan, and praised Russia’s role in the development.  Meanwhile, ‘Russia’s membership in NATO is clearly a nonissue for the near future‘.  Medvedev said he was hopeful that the ‘negative scenario‘ in Kyrgyzstan had been averted, although said that political stability was still at risk, and that the Kyrgyz scenario could repeat itself in other former Soviet republics.

Data from the black box of the plane that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski suggests that ‘flying error‘ was the most likely cause of the accident, and that the pilots ‘knew they were about to crash‘.  Russia is allowing cross-trade border with Georgia in a bid to ‘soothe differences with Georgia‘ and prevent any Abkhazian flare-ups, says Newsweek.  First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov says that Russia may abandon its plans to join the World Trade Organization in a joint bid with Kazakhstan and Belarus.  Not much of a surprise, says the Moscow Times, as the plan ‘contradicts the rules of this organization’ and were criticized from the start.  
It’s the five year anniversary this week of Nashi, the pro-Kremlin youth organization, which celebrated with a 2,000-strong gathering presided over by Kremlin first deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov ‘who is widely believed to have organized the group‘.  The British architect Lord Foster is backing a Russian campaign to save the ‘neglected and dying‘ 150-metre-high Soviet-era radio station designed by Vladimir Shukhov and commissioned by Lenin.
The Other Russia reports on another police scandal
PHOTO: Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev attends the BRIC summit at the Itamaraty palace in Brasilia, Thursday, April 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)