TODAY: Russia blasts US for criticisms of dissent crackdown; another two dozen detained as protests continue; Ilya Yashin released.  Tupolev-154s to be grounded?  Amendments for START; icebreakers continue rescue efforts; winning hockey team’s celebrations fail to charm Delta airlines

‘When Obama was assuming his duties, he pledged not to repeat the errors made by his predecessor not to interfere in foreign countries’ affairs and not to force democracy on anyone in the world‘, says the chairman of Russia’s Foreign Affairs Committee, in a sign that the Kremlin is highly riled by the wave of criticisms from the US on the subject of curbing dissent.  ‘The trouble is that the giving of permits has enabled the Kremlin to generate good press while maintaining arbitrary power for the police to crack down on protesters’, says RFE/RL in an overview of the single picket media attention.  Moscow police say two dozen demonstrators were arrested yesterday on the fourth straight day of detentions of demonstrators.  One of the four jailed opposition leaders, llya Yashin, has been freed.  The Yabloko youth leader has said, ‘we’re going to appeal, but we understand that the sentences have nothing to do with the law’.  In the wake of repression, several analysts have pointed to the hollowness of Medvedev’s pro-reform rhetoric, including this commentator in the Economist: ‘[H]is attempts to dissociate himself from the treatment of Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Nemtsov do not absolve him from the responsibility that he bears, as guardian of Russia’s constitution, for the shortcomings of the courts and the government’.