Onlookers are eagerly awaiting this weekend’s NATO summit in Lisbon, anticipating some ‘unusual courting‘ of Russia thanks to comments from Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is touting the meeting as ‘the most important in NATO’s history‘ and, he hopes, a turning-point in relations.  Setting a date for withdrawal from Afghanistan is one of NATO’s key aims, along with enlisting Russia’s help in doing so.  If it succeeds in this latter aim, it would amount to a ‘striking turnaround‘ for Russia, says VOA.  Michael Bohm says that Russia will never become a NATO member for various reasons, including the alliance’s requirement that its members have civilian and democratic control over their armed forces, which is, he says, ‘anathema to the basic principles of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s vertical power structure.‘  Russia says that US authorities pressured Viktor Bout to admit his guilt in exchange for ‘unspecified benefits‘, and insists that the suspected arms dealer has ‘no secrets, military or otherwise‘.  Nadira Isayeva has won the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual International Press Freedom Award for her work in Dagestan.