October 5, 2009 By Citizen M

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – October 5, 2009

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TODAY: Lavrov keeps eagle eye on Georgia; Netanyahu’s fears about Russian rogue scientists; Chubais takes the fall for hydropower plant disaster.  Litvinenko widow despairs over apparent British moves towards rapprochement.  Luzhkov-Baturina to take Nemtsov to court. UN report pessimistic on Russia’s demographic decline; Ban Ki-moon voices approval for ecological care.
According to the Moscow Times, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Russia will survey shipping in the Black Sea to monitor Georgian ‘provocations’ which are a ‘serious concern’.  Jorg Himmelreich in the International Herald Tribune suggests that much analysis of last year’s Georgia-Russia conflict has overlooked the crucial matter of President Bush’s Georgia policy.  Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko says that he believes that the ratification of the Lisbon treaty would benefit Russian-EU relations, Ria-Novosti reports.  Maintaining predominance in energy issues, protecting trade: the Washington Post looks at Russia’s reasons to play nice with Iran.  The Times reports that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s fly-by-night visit to Moscow was to present the Kremlin with a list of Russian scientists who are helping Iran to make a nuclear warhead.