TODAY: Khodorkovsky’s former inmate tells of prison officials’ corruption; Russia appears on new corruption ranking; EU to start new Russia talks this week; US Treasury Secretary meets with Putin and Medvedev. A former inmate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky has revealed that prison officials threatened to deny him conditional release unless he falsely accused the former Yukos head of breaking prison rules. The Interior Ministry’s top official in Stavropol is under investigation for “conducting illegal surveillance and abuse of office”. A new report by Transparency International ranks Russia 145th out of 160 of the world’s most corrupt countries, as reported by The Other Russia. Read the full report here. An open letter published in Russia’s New Times magazine asks President Dmitry Medvedev to grant Russian citizenship to journalist Natalya Morar: “This would really prove that [your promise to] fight legal nihilism and corruption are not just words.”