TODAY: Red Square protest attracts hundreds of activists; Yevgenia Chirikova one of three among detained; first arrests made under St Petersburg’s new anti-gay propaganda law; charges against Magnitksy doctor dropped. Rumors spread of Nashi’s demise; Moscow region’s new governor suggests Siberian move for capital; ministerial ups and downs.  Anti-NATO rally held in Ulyanovsk; Foreign Ministry will plead for Bout’s return; Russian malaise

Hundreds of opposition activists, among them Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov and opposition politician Boris Nemtsov gathered for the unsanctioned ‘White Square’ rally in Red Square on Sunday.  Police allowed the participants to enter the square, but detained three protestors, including Khimki forest defender Yevgenia Chirikova, who attempted to pitch a tent by the Kremlin walls.  ‘The tent is a symbol of our resistance to the illegitimate government‘.   Police in St Petersburg have detained two people holding placards reading ‘It’s normal to be gay’ in violation of the new law banning homosexual propaganda.  Human Rights Watch has urged that the attack on Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina be thoroughly investigated.  The New York Times reports that the charges against one of just two people held accountable for the death in custody of Sergei Magnitksy have been dropped.  A senior executive from Hermitage Capital, the firm for which Magnitsky worked, has expressed fears for his life after his home address in London was leaked to officials allegedly involved in the lawyer’s death.  Several police officers in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk have apparently been charged with torture.