TODAY: Russia seeks to regain hold over its neighbors; Ex-PM Tymoschenko fears Ukraine break up; Medvedev proposes CSTO membership to Ukraine; NATO’s relationship with Russia.  Official who killed child in traffic accident will not face charges; Medvedev to be informed of Khodorkovsky hunger strike; Guantanamo vs Russia prison. Toxic spill; new mine explosion; UNESCO site endangered by highway

According to Bloomberg, Russia is exploiting the West’s negligence of Eastern Europe to re-solder its influence among its ex-Soviet neighbors.  ‘No one could say that Russia is subtle in its drive to gain influence over Ukraine’ argues the Times.   President Medvedev has wooed Kiev with an invitation to join the Collective Security Treaty Organization.  The President has asserted that Russia will not use its Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet for aggressive purposes.  A protest planned by Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev against the Russian leader has been quashed.  Ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoschenko has told the Times that Ukraine’s rapprochement with Russia is undermining stability in the country and has heralded a ‘rolling back of democracy, a destruction of the rule of law and the beginning of repression against the opposition’.   An op-ed in the Moscow Times present five reasons why Ukraine’s new government will not bring reforms.  The Moscow Times reports on a Russian exodus from restive Kyrgyzstan.  There is an interview with the father of one of the Moscow metro suicide bombers in the New York Times.
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