TODAY: Tens of thousands join pro-Kremlin May Day celebrations, Putin hands out Soviet-style awards; media freedom at a ten-year low; U.S. pushing for support on Syria; former Duma deputy charged with attacking a police officer; Olympic champion loses medal over doping.

In what was supposed to be ‘a demonstration of Putin’s power’, yesterday’s May Day celebrations saw hundreds of thousands of people gathering all over Russia to join various pro-Kremlin and state-sponsored marches.  Police estimated that 90,000 people marched in Moscow (upping their earlier estimates of 70,000), and 150,000 in St. Petersburg, with larger marches in Chechnya.  The Communist Party held a smaller opposition rally in Moscow.  The Guardian has some video of the processions in Moscow which, says one participant, are held in honour of ‘the future’.  200,000 police were deployed all over Russia to ensure order, with 10,000 active in Moscow alone.  Putin marked the day’s celebrations by handing out Soviet-style Hero of Labour awards to a neurosurgeon, a machine operator, a mining foreman, and the director of the Mariinsky Theatre.