TODAY: Russia celebrates Victory Day; Russia expels two US military attachés; Communists vote against Putin’s appointment as Prime Minister; Medvedev to restore Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. 56 of the 450 members of Parliament, all Communists, voted against the appointment of Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister, with their leader “issu[ing] a scathing assessment of Mr. Putin’s eight years of rule, saying they were marked by lost opportunities.” This morning’s Victory Day parade included a “military parade involving almost 8,000 personnel, 111 sophisticated tracked and wheeled military vehicles, as well as 32 aircraft and helicopters,” plus “a large military orchestra of 550 musicians”. The Russian government has expelled two US military attachés, but the US denies that there is any connection with its expulsion in April of a Russian diplomat. Neither side has given any reason for the expulsions, but the US insists that it does not reflect a broader rift between the two countries. Russia may increase the number of troops in Abkhazia “to the upper limit.” Before stepping down as President, Vladimir Putin signed into law new United Nations economic sanctions against Iran aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities. The Lithuanian Prime Minister says that his country’s opposition to planned partnership talks between Russia and the EU was intended to defend EU interests.