TODAY: International focus at Lavrov-Hague meeting; Russian FM warns Britain on encouraging democracy abroad; new hotline to be set up.  Ring in about corruption; Gorbachev denounces diarchy; Left Front leader on hunger strike; policeman charged with abuse of protesters. Military helicopter crash grounds fleet; airport bomber did not serve in Interior Ministry troops, says spokesman

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s meeting with British counterpart saw, it would seem, a muted tone of conciliation between the two nations, with Lavrov lauding ‘very positive’ dialogue with David Cameron and confirming an invitation for the British Prime Minister to visit Moscow later in the year  A new hotline will be installed between London and the Kremlin in aid of efforts to improve chilly relations between the two countries.  According to the BBC, William Hague warned it would ‘take time’ for relations with Russia to improve after the ‘serious disagreements’ of recent years.  ‘Hague picked his words with the care of a man crossing a flooded river on stepping stones’, says the Guardian’s Simon Hoggart in a sardonic look at the meeting.  The Independent reports that Lavrov used the meeting as an opportunity to criticize British and US policies abroad, such as the use sanctions on Iran, and Western support of protests in the Middle East, which he called ‘counter-productive’, apparently arguing that pressure for ‘democracy of a specific pattern’ in the region would have an adverse effect.  Ria-Novosti notes that London-based Russian opposition activists tried to pass on a gift for Putin (‘the [Russian] constitution and a magnifying glass’) as well as other ironic offerings for President Medvedev and Andrei Lugovoi (the principal suspect in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko) to the Foreign Minister after he gave a talk at LSE.