TODAY: Opposition influence grows; Serdyukov dismissal is either anti-corruption bid or personal issue; more Russians challenge validity of U.S. elections; new Jewish Museum in Moscow; Bashneft Iraq deal and Russia’s untapped reserves. 

Their numbers have declined, but extra-parliamentary opposition has grown in influence since last year, suggests a new study.  Newly-appointed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has ‘inherited a military at a crossroads’, with analysts uncertain as to whether or not he will follow his predecessor, Anatoly Serdyukov, in trimming down the military from its current size.  Shoigu’s previous post of Moscow governor has been filled by leading United Russia member Andrei Vorobyov.  Nikolai Petrov says that President Vladimir Putin’s dismissal of Serdyukov may be an attempt to restore his own popularity due to the implication that it was tied to corruption allegations.  Nonetheless, rumours persist that Serdyukov’s main error was to have offended Putin’s political family by having an affair with Viktor Zubkov’s daughter. ‘It’s the bathrobe and the slippers – it’s not corruption (that brought Serdyukov down).‘