TODAY: Saturday protests draw fewer people than anticipated as opposition regroups; a dozen detained at unauthorised gathering; Kremlin crackdown feared; St Petersburg signs anti-gay measures into law; Magnitsky and Browder to be tried; Obama congratulates Putin.

Saturday saw thousands of protesters gathering in Moscow for an anti-Putin demonstration, although numbers range between 10,000, 20,000, and 25,000 – in all cases, much lower than the 50,000 that organisers had initially hoped for, and at best, a quarter of the numbers drawn by earlier protests.  The BBC has video footage.  Opposition figures are saying now that the movement needs to develop a long-term view, and needs to pause before organising another mass action ‘so as not to tire people out with frequent demonstrations’.  The Washington Post welcomes the appearance at the rally of many ‘younger faces’.  Police detained ‘about a dozen’ protesters taking part in an unauthorised march on the same day, including Sergei Udaltsov, spurring Vladimir Ryzhkov to speak out against breakaway demonstrations.  Recent demonstrations are estimated to have cost the Moscow budget $102,000.  A Moscow court yesterday filed formal charges against Alexei Kozlov, the husband of political activist Olga Romanova, sparking concerns that the Kremlin are going to begin cracking down on its opposition.  Russian Justice Initiative, the foreign NGO which provided legal assistance to Russians in the European Court of Human Rights, has been excluded from a list of authorised NGO.