President Dmitry Medvedev marked Russia’s state security agencies’ professional holiday by calling for them to work more effectively to prevent internal and external threats to the country’s security.  Russia’s Ministry of Justice will be able to control which non-profit organizations are allowed to use the word ‘Russia’ in their titles, reports The Other Russia; human rights activist Lev Ponomarev anticipates that the rule will extend to all opposition NPOs.  At a recent school visit, Vladimir Putin, who has a black belt in judo, offered to join the national judo team, ‘adding to his carefully-crafted macho image‘.  If the contradictory reports are anything to go by, an agreement on a new START treaty is a long way off. President Obama says Russia and the US are ‘quite close‘ to reaching an agreement, Russian sources say don’t expect a deal until February.