The Media Mirror – read a review of today's Russian newspapers

Friday’s Russian papers report widely on the meeting between President Putin and Jakes Rogge, the President of the IOC. They also cover the ongoing UN General Assembly and the exchange of accusations between Georgia and Russia.

ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA writes that the meeting at the presidential residence in Bocharov Ruchei near Sochi focused on organizational aspects of the preparation for the Winter Olympic Games of 2014.

The paper quotes President Putin as saying: the tasks that the Russian side is facing go well beyond preparation for the Games. The Sochi Olympiad is a good chance for Russia to give an impulse to the development of its whole Southern area.

KOMMERSANT’s Andrei Kolesnikov writes that the announcement by the President of the list of officials responsible for the Olympics came as a surprise to many. The same article refers to the names and structure of the relevant government bodies. The President, says Kolesnikov, didn’t use a single sheet of paper during his presentation. The writer believes this shows how important the Olympic preparation is for the President who learned every single detail by heart.

IZVESTIA’s Elena Ovcharenko writes from New York about another President, this time – of Georgia. She says Mikhail Saakashvilli intentionally broke a long-standing unwritten rule of the UN: namely, at the General Assembly no-one raises bi-lateral issues. He did, accusing Russia of training terrorists and conducting missile attacks on Georgia.

Russia, on the other hand, announced that it has firm evidence on the brutal killing of two Russian instructors at a border-guard training camp in Abkhasia. The Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the Assembly that he has the names of the killers and is ready to present his case to the Georgian side.

KOMMERSANT reports that the Georgian President decided to strengthen his position once and for all in a single day. He attacked Russia at the UN while in Tbilisi the police were arresting his strongest opponent, former Defence Minister Irakly Okruashvili.

The same paper has a picture from Myanmar attached to a report on the UN discussion of the events in the South-east Asian country. A strong resolution proposed by the U.S., the UK and France met with firm opposition from China and Russia.

NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA calls the events in Myanmar a “Saffron Revolution” by the colour of the monks’ robes. The paper says Moscow changed its tone in relation to the latest actions by the military government after the news about the casualties arrived.