TODAY: US presses Russia on rights abuses; bikers up in arms; army officer’s extraordinary bribes; competition for Prokhorov?  China takes Russian side on US missile defense; NATO Sec-General criticizes Russian ‘out of date’ attitude.

RFE/RL has an interview with Michael McFaul, senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs on the U.S. president’s National Security Council on the latest session of a high-ranking U.S.-Russia talks on human rights, in which the US apparently made their concerns known ‘very bluntly’.  Vladimir Putin famously met with bikers in a photo-op to boost his macho image; he may have to woo them again as motorcyclists protest over an accident which left a young biker in a coma after being hit by a businessman speeding in a Porsche.  Meanwhile the Federation of Russian Car Owners plans to rally against rising gasoline prices in downtown Moscow today.  It is anticipated that billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov will be elected leader of the Right Cause party during a congress at the Moscow Planetarium next week, but he may have to fight off strong opposition from the Union of Right Forces its former incarnation, says this article.