TODAY: Kremlin downplays hopes of START breakthrough; Belarus won't offer political support for money; Gorbachev argues need for perestroika on global level; Putin playing to the crowd, Medvedev left in the wings?; Litvinenko suspect to sit in duma; Sochi construction chief ousted The Kremlin is being 'pragmatic' and does not have 'high expectations of the outcome' of Obama's upcoming Moscow trip, saying as long as the issue of missile defense remains 'unclear', it will be unwilling to reduce its own weaponry.  Mikhail Gorbachev has penned an article in the Washington Post suggesting that the US is in need of its own perestroika.  Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has rejected Russia's offers of a $500 million loan as it is reportedly contingent upon ...

The New York Times has a cool profile of Russian journalist Sergei Kanev, who fearlessly covers the crime beat for Novaya Gazeta:

Bit by bit, in the Vladimir V. Putin era, the ranks of people willing to hold the powerful to account are thinning. Their work is increasingly marginalized, so that most Russians never learn what corruption or human rights abuses they have uncovered. And while most do not blame the government for the attacks themselves, they say failure to investigate and punish the crimes has set a permissive, and dangerous, tone. (...)"The most dangerous thing right now is not to criticize the authorities," said Yulia Latynina, a columnist at the newspaper. "It's to criticize people who can kill you. The people Kanev writes about can kill. That is his problem." ...