RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – August 31, 2009
TODAY: NATO head upbeat on relations with Russia; Medvedev looks to imams for help with Caucasus Islamic insurgents; suggests a TV channel. Russia on the defensive regarding WW2; 70th anniversary of its start to prove a diplomatic minefield? St Petersburg heritage status in jeopardy with Gazprom tower looming.
The New York Times reports on how the period of relative tranquility in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan has ended with a surge in violence. Reuters relays Russian claims that an al-Qaeda agent has been killed in Dagestan. The republic’s recovering President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov has warned Medvedev that Islamic insurgency has ‘permeated all facets of life in society’. The Russian president has urged Muslim clerics to help discourage young people from joining the ranks of terrorists and suggested setting up a digital TV channel dedicated to Islamic themes to clarify the religion’s message. A military court has sentenced a Russian army lieutenant-colonel to prison for handing on military secrets to Georgia prior to last year’s war.