The week began with the death of Boris Yeltsin, the man who set adoption upon the path on which it now finds itself in Russia. Yeltsin, Russia's first democratically elected president, was buried on Wednesday; former U.S. President Bill Clinton attended.

One day later, Russia's current president (and Yeltsin's chosen successor), Vladimir Putin, gave Russia's equivalent of a state of the union speech. In his annual address to Russia's Federal Assembly, Putin praised the growing numbers of NGOs in Russia and volunteer work. "These are all real indicators that an active civil society is developing in our country," he said.

Putin also noted that Russia's death rate fell in 2006 while its birth rate rose, and called that "evidence that we are working in the right direction." As I've written before, Russia's demographic crisis of recent years has helped fuel the anti-adoption movement . Putin also put his support behind a legislative effort to to declare 2008 the Year of the Family in Russia. What that is going to entail isn't clear yet, but I'm sure we'll come back to it on this blog. There's a lot more on general economic and political policy in the speech, which went on for 75 minutes, including the clearest indication yet that Putin will step down when his term ends next spring.

Putin took a different tone when he talked about the United States earlier in the week. Putin warned that Washington's plans to build a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic could lead to "mutual destruction".

Another Russia notable died as the week ended, the noted cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. He had been suffering from intestinal cancer.

In business news, Bloomberg reported that S7, Russia's second biggest airline, ordered 10 Boeing 737-800 jets.

I wrote a few weeks back about how to take a virtual ride on Russia's Trans-Siberian railway. This week, a British travel company unveiled a luxury train that will take up to 15 days to cross the country. Fares start at $7,800 one way, but hey, there's a plasma screen TV in every compartment.