July 29, 2010 By Citizen M

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – July 29, 2010

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TODAY: Medvedev orders Kremlin corruption investigation, signs law extending FSB powers as the service looks set to expand; Khimki forest activists trash admin building? YouTube to be blocked by court order; Moscow smog levels ten times above safety norm; Nemtsov evaluates Putin report; CIS foreign policy; brawl at youth camp creates tensions.
President Dmitry Medvedev has made a very public order (there’s even a photograph) for Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to investigate any possibly corrupt activities by the Kremlin in connection with the 2014 Sochi Olympics – specifically in relation to allegations that Vladimir Leshchevsky was taking bribes.  Medvedev has also signed into law the controversial bill expanding the FSB’s powers, granting them the right to issue warnings to those ‘creating the conditions for crime‘.  And is the Foreign Intelligence Service on the verge of being incorporated into the FSB?  RFE/RL says that such a move ‘would essentially recreate a monolith Russian spy agency reminiscent of the Soviet KGB‘.