POLITICS
* In response to growing criticism from the West, Moscow has launched a political “counter-offensive” in the best traditions of the Cold War. The main tool of a newly emerging clash of values and ideology is the propaganda of the Russian model of development, which the Kremlin portrays as superior to the Western model. (Kommersant)
* The Human Rights Council under the Russian president has criticized the growing government control over information flow and proposed to limit the number of media outlets controlled by the state. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
* Production of vodka in Russia dropped 30 percent in January due to record increase of excise taxes since the start of the new year. Some alcohol-manufacturing plants closed down while the current demand is met with reserves from last year. (Kommersant)
* Russia’s beer market shrank 2-3 percent in the Q4 of 2012 due to closure of street vending booths, according to a report by Denmark’s Carlsberg Group, which owns Russia’s Baltika brewery. (Kommersant)
* Russia’s state-run oil giant Rosneft has offered Chinese and South Korean oil companies joint projects in the development of oil and gas fields offshore fields in the Barents and Pechora Seas. Rosneft holds licenses to the development of 12 offshore fields in the Arctic. (Kommersant, Vedomosti)
* Online retail in Russia tripled in the past four years from $3.5 billion to 10.4 billion, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. However, most of online customers reside in Moscow, St. Petersburg and surrounding regions. (Kommersant)
* Sollers-Bussan, a joint venture between Russian auto maker Sollers and Japan’s Mitsui & Co., has started series production of Toyota Land Cruiser Prado cars in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. (Vedomosti)
* Russia will introduce tougher accounting policies in 2013 to fight widely-spread “shadow bookkeeping.” (Vedomosti)
WORLD
* Incumbent Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has won Armenia's presidential election with over 58 percent of the vote, according to official results announced by the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC). (Vedomosti)
SOCIETY
* Wealthy Muscovites prefer to hire foreigners as nannies and resident tutors for their kids. A series of interviews with foreigners about their experiences working with Russian children. (Moscow News)
DEFENSE
* The Russian military is planning to test lab mice as live detectors of explosives. The tests will be conducted in spring as a joint project with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). (Izvestia)
SCIENCE
* A call from space. Will the recent meteorite disaster in Russia’s Urals lead to the launch of an international project aimed at protecting the Earth from dangerous space objects? (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
CRIME
* Russian lawmakers have urged the Russian Investigative Committee to open a criminal case against a Texas woman who allegedly killed a toddler she and her husband had adopted from Russia. (Izvestia)
* The body of a central Russia regional lawmaker has been discovered stuffed into a barrel of cement near Moscow. Mikhail Pakhomov, 36, may have been killed over a huge debt of $80 million. Twelve people have been arrested in connection with his death, investigators said. (Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
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