TODAY: United Russia’s liberal platform seen as a trick; Belykh could lose his post; Medvedev ‘clinging to job’; no closure of children’s hospital in St. Petersburg; resentment in Sochi; preservationists detained; Razvozzhayev’s lawyer detained; Georgian PM pledges to rebuild ties; $1.4 billion sought by Agriculture Minister.

Analysts say that United Russia’s new ‘liberal’ platform calling for a rehaul of the party is a ‘deceptive trick’, designed to ‘demonise’ Kremlin critics whilst maintaining its usual conservative aims.  Following a raid on the offices of Kirov governor Nikita Belykh last week, 19 regional lawmakers say they plan to put forward a no-confidence vote against him.  ‘The searches in Nikita’s office are a clear sign of the end of the ‘Medvedev thaw’,’ commented one of his former deputies.  Bloomberg reports that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is ‘clinging to his job’ due to his being seen as a threat by powerful allies of Vladimir Putin; Brian Whitmore considers the mystery of the recent anonymously-posted YouTube video slamming him.  A children’s cancer hospital in St. Petersburg will not be transformed into a clinic for senior judges, as a minister promised that the initial plan to do so was ‘over and done with’.  The BBC reports on ‘growing resentment’ in the Black Sea resort of Sochi (now ‘one of the biggest building sites in the world’), where planning for next year’s Olympics are still underway.  Plans are in the pipelines to build a $20 billion highway from Sochi to Krasnodar.