February 3, 2010 By Citizen M

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Feb 3, 2010

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TODAY: Medvedev’s think-tank to press for return to Yeltsin-era policies? Kaliningrad protests have officials worried, reports say; Russia and US reach nuclear reduction agreement ‘in principle’; police rally round commander accused of corruption; Ukrainian spies and election spats. 
The Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), a think-tank set up by President Dmitry Medvedev, reportedly will propose ‘radical changes in Russia that would mark a return to a political system of the era of ex-president Boris Yeltsin‘ in a new report, said to be planned for release later today.  Officials have been visiting Kaliningrad to investigate the public fury that led to the weekend’s 6,000-plus (some estimate the numbers at 12,000) anti-government protest, which, sources suggest, ‘caught the Kremlin off-guard‘ and ‘stirred worries in the Kremlin‘.  The New York Times reports that locals are particularly fed up with Grigory Boos, the United Russia candidate that Vladimir Putin appointed in 2005 ‘after doing away with direct gubernatorial elections‘.  United Russia is reportedlybussing in paid supporters from outside the city‘ for a counter-rally.  Sergei Mironov, the United Russia speaker and head of A Just Russia who criticized some of Putin’s policies, is likely to be forced to resign, with other party members calling his remarks a reflection of a ‘personal moral crisis‘; but Mironov says that current legislature doesn’t allow his removal.