TODAY: Russia detainees attract unwanted UN attention; corruption monitoring; fight for right to assembly in court.  Increase in economic crimes; drop in hate crimes.  Russia and NATO increase cooperation in Afghanistan; START almost complete (apparently); jets to be approved; arms exports on the increase. Klebnikov suspect cleared; journalist fined for USSR snub. Stalin soda.  Putin’s favorite rocker in Duma.

According to the Other Russia, a new UN report, destined for the Human Rights Council, reveals that Russia is on the list of countries that persists in holding detainees in secret.  Transparency International, which apparently regularly places Russia among the most corrupt countries in the world, intends to monitor corruption closely both in Russia and in the US.  The Other Russia group is going to court to defend its right to hold a rally on January 31 as part of Strategy 31, a campaign which tests the right to freedom of assembly.  The Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee claims it saw an eightfold increase in economic crime in 2009.  Moscow human rights group Sova reports that racist attacks dropped dramatically in 2009.