TODAY: Bout in detention in New York, Thailand fears Russia will cut ties; Kashin may give evidence today; one year on, US renews calls on Magnitsky case; Medvedev to reorganize Russian territory?  Military aid to Lebanon includes 31 tanks; Semin calls for crackdown on protesters before they protest. START ratification looking less and less likely. 

Viktor Bout is in a temporary detention center in New York after having been extradited to the US by the Thai government, and may be brought to court today.  Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is calling Thailand’s move ‘a blatant injustice‘, and blaming ‘unprecedented‘ US pressure.  The Bangkok Post suggests that Thailand should not have extradited Bout, due to the risks of Russia cutting ties and thereby threatening Thai export markets.  ‘You’d think that the Obama administration had kidnapped a national hero.‘  Time Magazine focuses on the case of Oleg Kashin, reporting allegations that police tried to sell a video of his attack to a news website for €20,000, and comparing the responses of the President and Prime Minister.  Kashin may give evidence to investigators today, says his wife.  Vladimir Ryzhkov writes on journalist attacks, business raids, and Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as the US renews calls for Russia to prosecute those responsible for his death.  The current (and third) forensic medical investigation into the case suggests that Magnitsky died of heart failure, but ‘inconsistencies‘ may warrant a fourth.