TODAY: Opposition coalition lays out plans for 2012 bid; Putin domain name indicating he will run for President? Case into mysterious death of journalist re-opened; gay activist detained. Senate Foreign Relations Committee says yes to START; Zakayev arrested in Poland. Public Chamber contemplates Khimki highway; Kalymkian President has another off-the-wall idea

‘The prospect of having the great Putin till the year 2024 in our country is a disaster for Russia’: the words of Boris Nemtsov at yesterday’s press conference inaugurating the new opposition coalition, ‘Russia Without Tyranny or Lawlessness’.  Shaun Walker in the Independent hints at the fact that soldering Russia’s dissenting forces may not be as easy as it looks: Garry Kasparov for example was notable by his absence.  Not to mention the problems posed by the powers that be: the conference had a last-minute venue change which organizers believed to be a government attempt to disrupt proceedings.  The New York Times reports that a government agency has registered the web address Putin-2012.rf, which reporters have taken as a sign that the current Prime Minister will be making a bid for the presidency in two years time.  Whilst talk of a fissure in United Russia over Mayor Luzkhov rumbles on, A Just Russia deputy Gennady Gudkov has decided to create a cross-party modernization movement called ‘Go Russia’, after President Medvedev’s landmark speech.  Under the patronage of Mikhail Gorbachev’s foundation a new political alliance, called Civil Dialogue, has been established.