NEWSWATCH: “Russian bribery probe widens amid reports of Kremlin power struggle” – Washington Post/David Filipov
“… Russia’s state-run news agency reported … more officials could be targeted in the corruption probe that has already led to the arrest of the … economic development minister. Other news reports … name[d] names, all of them of officials close to … Medvedev, leader of the so-called liberals, who tend to favor a smaller state role in society and greater international outreach. … [a] faction … seen to be in an eternal struggle against the Kremlin’s ‘siloviki’ … that include[] officials from the military, law enforcement and security services in Putin’s inner circles. At the center of the current tug of war is the privatization of major oil assets. …”