TODAY: Economist Democracy Index sees Russia leaning towards authoritarianism; US acting department spokesman says Khodorkovsky trial will not be detrimental to relations; Putin lauds START as success for Medvedev; highlights cabinet unity.  Russians arrested in Minsk freed; Lithuania delves into Soviet-era tensions. Putin slams transportation officials; ice storms continue to reek havoc; Moscow traffic madness; goodbye kiosks

The Economist magazine has released its 2010 Democracy Index, in which Russia is ranked 107th out of 167 countries in terms of quality of democracy, making it a ‘hybrid regime’, only six spots away from being considered an authoritarian one. See a full breakdown of the results here.  As Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev await their sentence, the Guardian reports on judge Viktor Danilkin’s unusual oratory style, which according to the Washington Post, ‘put one of the prosecutors to sleep for several minutes’.  The US’ concerned response to the guilty verdict will not prevent the two countries from strengthening their cooperation, U.S. Acting Department Spokesman Mark Toner has said.  In his first comments on START since it received approval in the United States Senate, Vladimir Putin has praised the treaty as an ‘unconditional success for President [Dmitry] Medvedev in foreign policy’.  According to Bloomberg, the Prime Minister emphasized the economic value that the treaty would bring.  At the last cabinet meeting of this year, Putin lauded the ‘unity’ and teamwork of the tandem.