TODAY:  EU to consider visa relaxation, but fast resolution unlikely; Shuvalov acknowledges bribery problem; commemoration for victims of a Soviet protest rally crackdown.  Medvedev optimistic on birth rate rise; FSB reports on terrorist activity; Saakashvili victory. Taxi drivers find new flock; mission to ‘Mars’ begins

The EU has pledged to ‘study‘, using a ‘step-by-step approach’, the Russian plan to introduce visa deregulation; the union has warned it may be a lengthy process.  Russia’s first deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, has told the BBC that bribery in Russia is an ‘awful problem’.  Konstantin Sonin in the Moscow Times examines why Medvedev’s new laws to protect business people from illegal treatment from prosecutors have met so much resistance.  Moscow Human Rights Ombudsman Aleksandr Muzykantsky has complained that pro-Kremlin youth activists can be found holding rallies on the 31st of each month, when Strategy 31 marches take place, thus providing an pretext for banning the opposition rallies.  Residents of Novocherkassk in Rostov Oblast are today commemorating the 26 people who were killed during a police crackdown on a peaceful demonstration in 1962.  Medvedev has announced that there has been a 1.5% increase in the number of births during the first quarter.  Eight couples have been awarded ‘Motherhood Glory‘ awards by the President for their child-bearing capacities.