TODAY: Russia plays host to SCO and BRIC meetings; sidestepping protests at home, Iranian President Ahmadinejad lands in ‘welcoming’ Russia; is the US re-start set to stall?; Kremlin vetoes UN mission in Georgia; Russia holds record for journalist deaths in Europe

Russia has welcomed controversially re-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Yekaterinburg for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit at which the country has observer status.  Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has called the violently-contested election: ‘an internal affair of the Iranian people.’   The New York Times examines the difficulties awaiting Barack Obama in Moscow, particularly regarding hopes of Russian pressure on Iran.  Another article in the Times suggests that during the BRIC summit, Russia, the group’s ‘ideological provocateur’, will be ‘especially interested in using the summit to fire a shot across Washington’s bow’.  A Moscow Times commentator analyzes the many hurdles that belie U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent optimism about missile cooperation in Europe.  Bloomberg reports on the threat of Medvedev’s ‘increasingly multipolar world order’ to US hegemony.  Offered aid by Russia, Kyrgyzstan has begun closing down its US air base, despite Washington’s attempts to maintain it.