TODAY: NATO ministerial level meeting to take place in Corfu; deputies suggests nationalization of troubled Pikalyovo factory; gay rights activist to sue Moscow mayor; blacklisting practice; bribery affecting the poor

‘We have always had quite good relations with the Korean leadership but what has happened arouses very big concern‘: says President Medvedev on North Korea.  The Kremlin has stated that it may support economic sanctions against the rogue state to convince it to put a halt to its nuclear program.  US and Russian officials have concluded their talks on strategic arms reduction without comment from Russia, but the US negotiator, Rose Gottemoeller, has called them ‘productive‘.  NATO and Russia Foreign Ministers are set to meet in Corfu on June 27 in the first of such high-level talks since the Russia-Georgia conflict of last year.  According to the Moscow Times, aid-hungry Belarus is on the verge of bankruptcy.