Russian media scoop of the day

1. RusAl seeks stake in China's NORINCO sales subsidiary - RIA News - "The implementation of these investment plans will make it possible to expand the Russian capacity for the manufacture of products with high-added value and increase exports of Russian aluminum output to China and other Asian countries," RusAl said. 

 Dmitry Medvedev, Hu Jintao sign two joint statements, 12:16 27/09/2010, © RIA Novosti. Mikhail Klementiev

2. Syria may save Tupolev planes from extinction - RIA News - A Syrian contract for supply of Russian Tu-204 airliners could save the Tupolev aircraft brand from extinction,Russian media said on Monday. Atlant-Soyuz, an airline controlled by the Moscow city government and the only current customer for Tu-204 jets, recently scrapped a contract to purchase 15 of the aircraft.

Russian Tu-204 passenger plane, © RIA Novosti. Dmitriy Korobeynikov

3. Телеакадемики уважают позицию Познера в связи с инцидентом на «ТЭФИ» - РИА Новости - "Телеведущий Владимир Познер заявил в понедельник в эфире радиостанции «Эхо Москвы» о том, что он может выйти из состава Телеакадемии из-за того, что имя журналистки Мананы Асламазян, которой была присуждена специальная награда, не было объявлено на церемонии.

«Отказ прилюдно чествовать Манану Асламазян, которую называют с полным основанием „мамой российского регионального телевидения“, это невероятно неприличная ситуация, в которую поставила себя Академия. Мне за эту ситуацию очень стыдно и очень жалко», — заявила Максимовская."

4. What China learned from Vladimir Putin - Foreign Policy - Call it the Georgia lesson. In 2008, Russia informed the United States and the rest of the West that the former Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia were no longer their playland, but rather Moscow's sovereign sphere of influence. How did it do so? By going to war with Georgia. 

ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images

Now we have China informing Japan -- and the rest of Asia -- that the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea are its territory in which to fish and whatever else it wishes. Like Russia, Beijing did so by demonstrating that it was prepared to go to almost any extreme -- in this case short of war, but including the crippling of several Japanese industries -- to press its territorial claim. This includes rights over the big oil and gas reserves in the islands. Today Japan blinked. After this, will Japan continue the presumption that it is in charge of what it calls the Senkaku islands? Not if it wishes to continue to manufacture the Prius, as Andrew Leonard notes at Salon.