Russia will group its most volatile North Caucasus republics together into a new federal district, according to President Dmitry Medvedev, who appointed the district a new deputy prime minister: Alexander Khloponin, ‘a weathered politician with a past in big business‘.  Medvedev’s focus for the new appointment, reportedly, is on ‘clamping down on economic crime and nurturing economic development‘ – a means of getting to the root of terrorist violence.  The President also outlined his plan to boost Russia’s population, after yesterday’s reports that the birthrate had increased for the first time in 14 years, and announced that Russia would send an ambassador to Ukraine to replace the one it recalled last year, after it became clear that Viktor Yushchenko would not be returning to the presidency.