By Citizen M | Published: January 19, 2011

TODAY: Poland blames Russia for Smolensk; psychiatrist dies after detention; journalist released from prison; Nemtsov describe attack; church says drunk women are to blame for attacks; Medvedev reiterates support for independent Palestine; Russia delaying UN vote on Ivory Coast troops; Luzkhov banned from Latvia. HIV, A Just Russia, Epiphany.
Polish investigators are
blaming Russia for the Smolensk crash last April, saying that its air traffic controllers failed to warn the plane’s crew that it was off course. Russia’s Transport Minister says that
‘objective‘ conclusions should be made by both sides, and insisted that ‘
it is up to the pilot to make the decision to land‘. The case of a psychiatrist who died after spending two days in a detention center has sparked claims that Yevgeny Leonov was
beaten by police. Aigul Makhmutova, a 26-year-old journalist, has been
released from prison after serving three years of a sentence handed down after her newspaper criticized local authorities, and says she plans to continue her work. The Other Russia has a
translation of Boris Nemtsov’s account of being attacked with a butterfly net on his release from prison. The Orthodox Church is going after women who wear miniskirts, and saying that inebriated women who are sexually attacked
have only themselves to blame.
Not only has his residency permit been denied, but former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has been
banned from Latvia entirely for ‘
his wish to utilize Latvia for personal goals‘; the Prime Minister says the issue is
not political. If Russia wants to solve its HIV problem, it needs to treat its drug users, says
Time. Will a re-branding involving the ‘
fashionable‘ Siberian tiger help A Just Russia
increase its popularity ahead of Duma elections, and shake off memories of its previous association with the muskrat? Russia
celebrates Epiphany today, marked by the ‘
valiant bravado‘ of its participants, who bath in ice holes.
Torry Hansen, the Tennessee mother who sent her adopted son back to Russia with a note asking that his adoption be canceled, is ‘
holding up the boy’s re-adoption by refusing to give up her parental rights‘.
PHOTO: Orthodox priests conduct a service at the ice hole of the pound in the Kolomenskoe park on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)