TODAY: Regional election promise little advance for opposition parties; anti-Putin petition making waves. Close Yanukovych ally named Ukrainian PM; Russia suspicious of US presence in Kyrgyzstan; buying up land in Paris. US human rights survey flags up abuses in Caucasus; white supremacists jailed.  Kirillov takes notion of tiger adoption very seriously.

As this weekend’s regional elections beckon, the Moscow Times reports that despite Medvedev’s pledges to help increase representation for smaller parties in regional legislatures, United Russia is still enjoying its juggernaut effect.  ‘Medvedev understands something needs to be done, but on the ground, his words mean nothing […] For us nothing has changed‘, says Maxim Petlin, head of the barred Yabloko party.  Meanwhile A Just Russia is embroiled in controversy for its leaflets.  Following the bold public anti-government statements made of late by several leading figures in the art world, a petition calling for the stepping down of Vladimir Putin has reportedly received more than 2,000 signatures, from ‘intellectuals, cultural figures, and ordinary citizens’.  The Power Vertical has a translation of the anti-Putin manifesto here.