TODAY: Duma’s slew of anti-free speech laws; ‘no progress’ on Estemirova case; Putin visits Krymsk in bid to boost reputation, accused of ‘rudeness’ by Ukraine minister; Saudi Arabia objects to human rights comments; hacker group targets oil companies; TNK-BP ready to sell BP stake; Edelman leaves Russia.

The State Duma passed a number of anti-free speech laws last week – libel is now a criminal offence.  ‘The purpose of this law is not to defend the honest name of people, but to worry journalists and bloggers who are trying to uncover things that are inconvenient for the authorities,’ says one journalist.  PACE delegate Andreas Gross criticised the law, arguing that ‘everybody needs critics in order to learn’.  Responding to the Duma’s passing of the law on NGOs, Lyudmila Alexeyeva says that the ‘foreign agent’ label that Russian rights groups will be forced to accept is ‘disgraceful’, and says that her Moscow Helsinki Watch group will stop accepting foreign funding when the new law comes into effect.  The chief of rights group Memorial says that there has been ‘absolutely no progress’ in the case of Natalya Estemirova in the three years since her murder, blaming ‘sabotage’.