TODAY: Foreign Ministry raises alarm over NATO’s Libya campaign; Putin’s cucumber comments threaten EU relations.  Saakashvili claims dissidents are Kremlin-sponsored; stars attend five day war film premiere. US Senate voices concern over Khodorkovsky verdict.  Top military doctor’s graft charges; Yelena Baturina’s brother found guilty of fraud;
dead soldiers remembered via social network

Russia has reportedly apparently expressed concern about the pace of the NATO operation in Libya, after Britain and France announced they had deployed attack helicopters against loyalist forces.  The move prompted Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov to suggest that NATO is ‘one step’ from sending ground troops into the North African state to assist rebels in removing the languishing dictator Moammar Gaddafi from power.  Doing little to improve relations with Brussels ahead of an EU summit, Vladimir Putin has rebuffed criticisms that Russia’s ban on European vegetable imports contravenes WTO regulations commenting: ‘This may be against “the spirit of the WTO … but cucumbers that people die from after eating really stink’.  The Prime Minister has affirmed that the ban will not be lifted until the EU establishes the cause of the deadly E.coli outbreak.