Russia abstained on the U.N. Security Council’s 10-0 vote on military action in Libya, ‘[b]ut the fact that neither exercised their right to veto the resolution represented a major victory for the U.S. and its allies,‘ says the New York Times.  U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin has expressed concern over large-scale military intervention.  Relations between Russia and Japan are showing signs of rapprochement as earthquake diplomacy takes precedence over the Kuril Islands row. ‘Grievous events sometimes show us what is important and what is not,‘ said one Duma official, pledging to help Japan with gas and electricity supplies as much as possible.  President Dmitry Medvedev called the situation at Fukushima power plant a ‘colossal national disaster‘.  Residents of Russia’s Far East are ignoring the official line that radiation levels are normal, and are beginning to stockpile food and medicine in the event of fallout contamination from Japan’s nuclear plant, with high demand for iodine-rich and anti-radioactive kelp in the region.